How many people actually enjoy the end of Daylight Savings Time? Sure, it’s an extra hour or so of
sleep, but it completely ruins my sleep schedule, and now it’s pitch dark at 5:30 p.m. It feels like just as we start adjusting to one routine, the clocks switch and throw everything off again. The change might sound small: it’s just one hour, but it completely messes with one’s rhythm. Suddenly, waking
up feels harder, the evenings drag on longer, and the motivation to do anything after class drops with the sun.

At Villanova, a person can actually feel the mood shift across campus once daylight savings hits. The Quad, which was full of people tossing a football or chatting on the steps after class, suddenly empties out by dinner time. Walking from Bartley to The Commons in the dark at 5:30 p.m. just feels wrong. Everyone is bundled up, heads down, rushing back to their dorms instead of hanging out
outside. It’s like campus life loses its spark for a bit.

What’s funny is that Daylight Savings was originally meant to “help people” by making better use of the
daylight. But in 2025, it honestly just feels pointless. With classes, internships and studying late into the night, most of us aren’t exactly planning our lives around the sun. Instead, we’re stuck trying to convince ourselves it’s not bedtime when it looks like midnight outside our dorm windows.

For college students, the time change hits extra hard. We already juggle a thousand things, such as early
classes, late nights, club meetings and social plans, so even a small disruption can throw everything off. When the days get shorter, so does everyone’s patience. Suddenly no one wants to go to the gym or meet up to study be- cause it’s dark and cold and “feels too late.” The long evenings that used to be perfect for hanging out on campus become a struggle to stay awake past 8 p.m.
Jenny Sell, a Villanova sophomore, summed it up perfectly.

“Daylight savings always gives me seasonal depression,” Sell said. “The minute it starts getting dark
before dinner, I feel less motivated, less social and just kind of sad for no reason.”

There’s something about the early darkness that makes even small tasks feel heavier. You wake up tired, you go to class tired and by the time you’re done for the day, it’s pitch black out. It’s hard not to feel like the day’s already over before you’ve even had dinner.

It also changes the whole social rhythm of college life. Those spontaneous post-class Dunkin runs or walks to Mendel Field just stop happening. People head inside earlier, spend more time alone in their rooms and the campus energy fades. Even the dining halls feel quieter. It’s not just about sleep schedules, it’s about how daylight shapes the way we interact and connect.

Of course, there are a few perks. That first morning after the clocks turn back, when you wake up
“early” and feel strangely productive, is kind of nice. But that feeling fades fast once the afternoon darkness hits. It’s like getting a one-day high followed by months of grogginess. Sometimes I wonder why we even keep doing this. We are in an age where everything else has evolved, such as technology, transportation and communication, but somehow, we’re still collectively agreeing to shift time twice a year, like it’s 1918. For students especially, it just adds unnecessary chaos to an already unpredictable
schedule.

Every year, I tell myself I’ll adjust faster, but I never do. No mat- ter how much coffee I drink or how
early I go to bed, my body just refuses to believe it’s not bedtime at 6 p.m. And based on the number of “Why is it so dark already?” conversations I overhear in the library, I know I’m not alone.

So yes, technically, we get an “extra hour” once a year. But at what cost? I’d trade that extra hour of sleep
for an extra hour of light any day. Daylight savings might have made sense at some point, but now it’s just an outdated tradition that throws off our balance, dampens our energy, and darkens, literally and figuratively, what should be some of the best months.