How to Get Turnt Up Before the Bars Close on Daylight Savings Time
The second Sunday in March is always a bittersweet day. It's the beginning of daylight savings time, a season that's both innocuous and controversial. Sure, we're about to get an additional hour of sunlight each evening. Extra time for tailgating, outdoor music, backyard grilling, and anything else you want to do after work hours are over. The spring forward of time also means getting up at the crack of dawn to start your day, or for early birds, leaving the gym to head to work before the sun has even fully risen.
The biggest drag when daylight savings time begins, though, is losing an hour of Saturday night drinking time. Even if you find one of those clubs that doesn't kick you out an hour early, by the time you arrive at your own doorstep, it's an hour later than when you left the bar. Any way you look at it, this loss of perfectly good weekend clubbing time sucks, but before you update your Facebook status to whine about the summer time change, take a look at these helpful hints to maximize your Saturday night before the clocks change.
Short & Sweet Daylight Savings Time History
Why do we set clocks back anyway? Some guy had an idea decades ago that changing the time in the summer would give us more sunlight in the evenings to, well, do whatever we want. Easy enough, but then everyone seemed to have a different opinion, and it took a few years of on-again-off-again rulings by the US government to finally make daylight savings time the national standard. Opponents say it's confusing, unnecessary, and screws with our sleep cycles. Though these are all true, it is kind of nice to have some extra pool time after spending all day at the office. In the United States, we move our clocks forward at 2 am on the second Sunday in March, until daylight savings time ends, and we go back on the first Sunday in November. Why 2 am? Again, a bunch of old guys decided that most people would not be affected as much because they would be asleep in the middle of the night. Seems like those guys must not be much of a party crowd. For those of us who aren't normally in bed at 2 am on a Sunday morning, here's a guide to keeping the daylight savings time party going for a full night of fun. Lost hour be damned!
Go to Bed Early on Friday
This may seem like robbing from Peter to pay Paul, and it probably is, but going all out on Saturday night is much more important than getting turnt up on a Friday. At the end of the work week, Friday is just the warm up to having the full party experience on Saturday. If you're not hungover on Sunday morning, then there's no need to order a Bloody Mary at brunch, and that wouldn't make any sense. So keep Friday night short. The idea is to reset your internal clock a day early so that Saturday seems longer, and you don't feel as gypped at the end of the day.Wake Up Early on Saturday & Drink
It's now Saturday morning, and you've had a good night's sleep. Good thing, because daylight savings time begins tonight, and you don't want to be one of those tired losers on Sunday. Get up a little earlier than you normally would on a Saturday, and get your day started. Later in the day, you'll have been active longer, making the day stretch further. Just remember: start drinking before noon. If you get a buzz going around lunchtime, it will help you build stamina for clubbing that night. Just don't peak too soon. You're on a mission to party.
"Spring Forward" When You Sit Down to Dinner
When you get to the restaurant for dinner, set your clocks forward as you sit down. Most smartphones adjust for DST automatically, so you might have to break out your watch, or download a special time app. The point is to make the mental adjustment for the spring time change. Your dinner reservation was for 7 pm? It's now 8 o'clock in your world, so you better order that appetizer fast.Remind Everyone at the Club About Losing an Hour
Another key ingredient to keeping the night going strong is to make sure everyone around you remembers the lost hour. Announce to your bartender that you will not be controlled by spring forward nonsense! You are a professional, not some amateur that orders two shots at last call. Do bars close early on daylight savings time? The answer is: maybe. Technically, at exactly 2 am, the clocks change. So at 1:59 am, everyone should still be golden. However, some cities crack down on clubs when time springs forward, and use it as an excuse to ticket bar owners. So out of cautious necessity, many will close an hour early. Other bars close early so that staff doesn't lose an hour of sleep. Or just because they want to. The good news is, if you've followed all the steps, and your club stays open the full night, you've actually got a bonus hour to play with. Hashtag winning.
