Q: notifications: "do not disturb" switch is hidden

On my Mac Book Air (13 in. early 2014), with Mac OS X 10.10.5 ("Yosemite"), I get notifications coming in the upper right corner of the screen for Facebook, email, and apps. I want to turn them off temporarily. I found that there is a "do not disturb" switch in the Notifications panel. (The Notifications panel appears on right edge of screen when you click the icon of three horizontal lines with leading bullets in the upper right corner of my screen, to the right of my login ID and Spotlight's magnifying glass.) However, the "do not disturb" switch is hidden, and I cannot find a way to access it directly. It remains hidden even if I dismiss all Notifications (by clicking the little "X" next to each category header), so there is no question of there being enough room to display the switch.

My workaround: in Notifications panel, click on the gear icon (Settings) in lower right. This takes you to System Preferences > Notifications. There is a small image showing the "do not disturb" switch. Click on the image. This takes you right back to Notifications panel on right edge of screen, but now the "do not disturb" switch is visible (above date in Calendar tab; above first notification in Notification tab), and I can turn it on. Once it is turned on, the switch always shows in the Notifications Panel.

Incredibly inconvenient. This should and could be much, much easier.