An Alternate Temporal Convention

December 2, 2021

ideas

My proposal of an alternate convention for how we split and view the 24 hours in a day.

The Problem

A day is composed of 24 hours. In most places, the 24 hours on weekdays are roughly divided as follows. Times are in 24-hour clock format.

  • Around 6 hours of sleep from 0000 to 0600 when the sun hasn’t risen yet.
  • Around 12 hours of day time from 0600 to 1800. Adults generally go to work and kids to school. The sun is up.
  • Around 3 hours of family time from 1800 to 2100. The sun has set.
  • Around 3 hours of sleep from 2100 to 2400/0000. It is dark outside.

I see a couple of problems with this convention.

  1. We have approximately 12 hours of day time and 12 hours of night time, but it is split unevenly across the 24-hour clock as
    • Day - 0600 to 1800
    • Night - 0000 to 0600 and 1800 to 2400
  2. By the time people wake up, we are already approximately 6 hours in. It is absolutely ridiculous to start something from the number 6 instead of the number 0 or 1.

The Perfect split

To correct the above 2 problems, we can calibrate the time people wake up, and the time the sun rises, to be 0000 instead of 0600.

  • People wake up at around 0000. Sun rises at around this time.
  • Adults get ready to work by 0300, Kids get to school by 0200.
  • Work time ends by 1200. Kids get back home by around 0900 and play till 1200.
  • Family time from 1200to 1500.
  • Sleep at the end of the day from 1500 to 2400.

People now wake up at the start of the day. The sun occupies the sky from 0000 to 1200, while the moon stays from 1200 to 2400.

The suffices AM and PM can be replaced by D for day and N for night. The 12-hour time notation would be simply 0 D to 12 D and 0 N to 12 N.

Implications

People would require some time to adjust to this convention. However, I think this could be beneficial to humanity in the long run and worth the discomfort.

  • All historical events will have to be shifted by one day on either side depending on the time of the day happened. This would be a one-time inconvenience at the time of implementing this change. This includes your birthday too!

  • Holidays and festivals, now only start when people wake up. People don’t have to stay up late to celebrate the new year or Christmas or a friend’s birthday. They can come back from work the previous day and sleep. They need not leave work early for planning etc. Celebrations can start the next day after rejuvenation.

  • Late-night parties can be converted into early-morning parties. It could be safer and healthier for people to party in broad daylight. Humans are not nocturnal creatures.

  • When an alien civilization visits us, they would be impressed by our love for symmetry in our time keeping!!

I’m sold, can we switch?

Not so fast. In all seriousness, the cost of adjusting to the new convention is too high that I do not see how this new system will ever be in use in our times.

However, if (or is it “when”??) human beings go extinct, I hope the next intelligent species that gets to shape the Earth, follows this convention while keeping time!!

Have something to say? You can ...
  • Send an email with your comments to neophytenuggets@proton.me.