A lot of that is prime b.s. There is actually no benefit or rhyme or reason for why we have to endure this weekend's time shift and no reason we should even be playing with the idea of losing and gaining hours. Here's why:

The Energy Savings Are Minimal

A large push for DST has always been the idea that this time warp saved money and helped conserve energy. In the 1970s the energy crisis helped further this notion along. This is all a myth—the energy-savings are tiny. First off, did you notice any change in your energy bills between 2006-2008? I know that recalling electricity bills is asking a lot, but the reason I ask is that we actually extended DST by a month in 2007. The thought was that a month of DST would bring more savings.

That was wrong. The great energy-sucking state of California actually studied the impact of that extension and found it wanting. "Formally, weather- and lighting-corrected savings from DST were estimated at 0.18%," the California Energy Commission reported.

There was also another study on the state of Indiana, a state that went full DST in 2006. A team from Yale studied what happened post-DST, and found that the average Indianan was hit in the wallet by DST. National Geographic reported:

In their 2008 National Bureau of Economic Research study, the team found that lighting demand dropped, but the warmer hour of extra daylight tacked onto each evening led to more air-conditioning use, which canceled out the gains from reduced lighting and then some: Hoosiers paid higher electric bills than before DST, the study showed.

DST Is Bad For Your Health

SAD, a.k.a. seasonal affective disorder, is when people get bummed out when the seasons shift. Sunlight plays a role into that, and you'd think that DST would be something everyone would be looking forward to. Wrong. In order to get more daylight during the day, DST short-changes the early-morning sun hours. Those hours are important for those affected by SAD. And it's also very important for your sleep patterns.

"Daylight savings time is anti-physiologic, and it’s a little deleterious, at least for several days," Dr. Nicholas Rummo, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Northern Westchester Hospital told Health.com, adding that "light earlier in the day is more helpful for them."

Research has also shown that DST, and shifts and the rupturing of sleep patterns is also linked to myocardial infarctions (a.k.a. heart-attacks), car accidents, and medical equipment malfunctions.

Time Shifts Are Bad For Your Productivity

American exceptionalism is a phrase we've heard a lot recently, and it's usually prefixed by words like "dwindling" or "losing faith in...". If we want to continue this path, then we might as well have DST and shifting time patterns every few months. The weird shift in time messes with our sleep patterns and our bodies, and our work.