Mother of schoolchildren - part II

 

"Zombies at the breakfast table sequel / high wire act on tiptoe

Dear Sir or Madam,

the 3rd week of school and for me the 4th week of work are over. My family, the zombies at the breakfast table early in the morning before 6:00 a.m., creeps into bloodless vampires with even more shadows around their eyes. We were actually all relaxed and energetic after the summer vacation. Full of drive, ideas and positive energy. Unfortunately, a spectacle of short duration:Several weeks of sleep deprivation due to the still existing Daylight Saving Time regulation leaves its traces more and more every day. One of my sons has already fallen by the wayside. Seasonal flu. Chronic sleep deprivation has weakened his immune system. If he falls asleep at 8.30 p.m., he still only gets 9 hours of sleep, which he then tries to compensate for every weekend with a 12 hour sleep. Now that it's dark in the morning, already freezing cold and foggy, the 9h is never enough for a child. But getting an 11-year-old child to sleep before 20o'clock is hardly possible unless he is sick, like now.

Then, to make matters worse, the Daylight Saving Time regulation has also been extended: instead of resetting the clocks as in 1996 at the end of September, when day and night have the same lenght, we also have to endure sleep deprivation all October. October, the 7th month of the Daylight Saving Time regulation, only degenerates into torture. Here exhaustion is pusehd to the limit.

In addition, the tolerance limit has dropped in the whole family, there is more scolding, arguing and annoying each other, just like from April, when the clock was freshly changed. Slowly but steadly we are all getting to our last nerve. My boss (I belong to the group of half-day working mothers) is also stressing more and more (clearly, he also suffers from the same sleep deprivation problem). I feel like I am tiptoe dancing on a tightrope, sensitive, thin-skinned, and like every wrong movement gets me out of step.

Why?
Because we're damned tired again, and, thanks to the Daylight Saving Time regulation, we have to get up at 5.30 a.m. CET instead of 6.30am. Before, when I as doing shift work, which started at 6 o'clock, I had to get up at 5:00 a.m., which corresponds to 4:00 a.m. CET during the Daylight Saving Time regulation - the madness! I couldn't stand anymore and I take off my hat to all that have to endure this madness further.

The weekends are mainly there to somehow intercept sleep deprivation. But it works worse week after week.
In the first week after the summer break, I still had enough power to compensate.
In the second week I was already knocked out on Thursday.
In the third week on Wednesday and in the fourth week on Monday.
The 5th week follows and I am more horrified than ever. I have to sleep as much as each day allows.
That is feasible on weekends, but hardly possible during the week.

I don't know about you, but every minute counts with us in the morning. If the morning starts bad because of tiredness, it continues throughout the day. I can't use the so-called "won hour" in the evening because I'm too exhausted by then.
In the meantime I put out my light before 9:00 pm, yesterday at 8:30 pm, and sleep exhausted with the children. Then of course comes the thing with sleep disorders and waking up between 0:30 and 3:30, because I went to bed long before my actual normal bedtime, normal also for my biorhythm. This is all on top of relationship problems, because both partners are tired and not in the mood (and I mean it both ways).

October 26th, the day on which the time is finally restored to normal time, seems like an oasis in the desert, longed for. But often with it comes simultaneously (if not before in October) the breakdown, the bill after 7 months of life against the biorhythm. And people then erroneously blame it on the dark season, the winter, and nobody thinks about the 7 months for overexploitation of our bodies. When exactly should the body be allowed to recover?

Anyone who wants to get up very early in the morning should do so well and gladly, but that doesn't mean that the whole population has to be sheared and forced to do so.

Colds and depression are on the rise, not only in my son or in my family, because the immune defenses are weakened and the nervous system is worn down.

Yes, and losing weight, dear women, does not work, because with the cortisone that we release, due to the stress caused by the lack of continuous sleep, the fat loss is blocked right away. That also makes me crazy and tired.

Well, for medical practices, business is booming, high season. But is that the goal for the German people: a high wire act of a chronically tired society on tiptoe?!?

And the solution is so simple:
Turn the clocks back, set the normal time, sleep naturally and the world looks much better again (that's what grandma has always told us)! After that, you will have the strength and leisure to take care of the tasks that life will give us: peacefully, carefully and calmly. Rested and with less haste, our politicians could certainly think more clearly and make better decisions for the benefit of the people.

In the Middle Ages, the plague was called the scourge of God against which people were powerless. Daylight Saving Time regulation, on the other hand, is just a scourge made by men. This can be revoked at any time.

Kind regards
XX, mother from Bavaria, Germany "