It’s an annoying ritual to some: In most areas of the U.S. (except Arizona and Hawaii - where there's plenty of sunlight anyway), clocks go back in the fall and ahead for spring, but why do we do it, when did it start and how does it affect our lives?
Some answers before Sunday robs us of an hour of sleep:
Yeah, yeah, we understand that time shifting began as a way to conserve energy, but why is the middle of the night (2 AM) the official clock-tweaking time? It’s not like anybody sets an alarm to wake up so they can fix the clock and go back to sleep.
Jeanna Bryner, managing editor of Livescience.com, said the federal government wanted people to be safely at home for the switch — and bars and restaurants to be closed.
“They also didn’t want early shift workers and churchgoers to be impacted,” she said. “And they didn’t want it to change the day back to the day before, like if you did it at midnight and it became 11 p.m.”
In 1784, Benjamin Franklin lightheartedly suggested the idea to a Paris newspaper to conserve candles. In 1784, after noticing how many residents slept through sunny summer mornings, Franklin published an anonymous, satirical letter to Parisians suggesting they get up two hours earlier to conserve candles. Franklin did not suggest they adopt Daylight Saving Time (DST), although often mistakenly credited as doing so, but he did foreshadow a primary controversy that has followed DST around since its 1895 conception by New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson (who enjoyed the extra daylight to scour for insects) – does DST actually save energy?
Germany was the first to introduce it, during World War I. Britain and the United States followed. Now, about 70 countries have some form of it, covering more than 1 billion people. Except for a handful of adjustments, DST as we know it in America has been around since the 1960s, when Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which did not force all states to adopt DST, but merely said that if adopted it must be done uniformly. At that time, it was thought DST would save energy on incandescent lighting, then the primary use of electricity, although now things are more complicated due to widespread heating and cooling.
Daylight Saving Time makes summer days longer, as well as a portion of spring and fall days. As it stands right now, Standard Time “springs forward” at 2:00am on the second Sunday of March, creating darker mornings and brighter evenings until, on the first Sunday in November, it “falls back” into Standard Time. The idea is that people will be happier and more active thanks to more after-work daylight hours to spend outdoors. It’s also believed to conserve energy because the sun is out later and homes are naturally warmer and well-lit until closer to the average person’s bedtime. Obviously, darker, potentially colder mornings would increase the need for light and heat before work, but the belief is that lower energy usage at night outweighs increased usage in the morning. Thus, energy and money is saved.
Well, the thing about it is…who the hell knows? No one can seem to agree whether DST saves or costs both energy and money, or whether it is simply obsolete.
Most of the world’s population does not adhere to DST. According to the California Energy Commission, some 70 countries worldwide embrace it and, while that may seem like a lot, note that most of Africa and Asia do not. So DST is definitely in the minority in terms of global population. In the United States, most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not oblige the time change. Much of Indiana did not until the latest DST adjustment by the Bush administration, but more on that in a moment.
The recreation, retail, sports and tourism industries have historically supported DST because more time for consumers to be out and about means more money for these sectors. Farmers and the entertainment industry tend to oppose it because a farmer’s schedule is dependent on sunlight, and longer days cut into prime-time revenues for entertainment outlets. But none of that is here or there in terms of energy.
Daylight Saving Time makes summer days longer, as well as a portion of spring and fall days. As it stands right now, Standard Time “springs forward” at 2:00am on the second Sunday of March, creating darker mornings and brighter evenings until, on the first Sunday in November, it “falls back” into Standard Time. The idea is that people will be happier and more active thanks to more after-work daylight hours to spend outdoors. It’s also believed to conserve energy because the sun is out later and homes are naturally warmer and well-lit until closer to the average person’s bedtime. Obviously, darker, potentially colder mornings would increase the need for light and heat before work, but the belief is that lower energy usage at night outweighs increased usage in the morning. Thus, energy and money is saved.
Well, the thing about it is…who the hell knows? No one can seem to agree whether DST saves or costs both energy and money, or whether it is simply obsolete.
Most of the world’s population does not adhere to DST. According to the California Energy Commission, some 70 countries worldwide embrace it and, while that may seem like a lot, note that most of Africa and Asia do not. So DST is definitely in the minority in terms of global population. In the United States, most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not oblige the time change. Much of Indiana did not until the latest DST adjustment by the Bush administration, but more on that in a moment.
The recreation, retail, sports and tourism industries have historically supported DST because more time for consumers to be out and about means more money for these sectors. Farmers and the entertainment industry tend to oppose it because a farmer’s schedule is dependent on sunlight, and longer days cut into prime-time revenues for entertainment outlets. But none of that is here or there in terms of energy.
After World War I, daylight saving was left up to local governments in the U.S. It was reimposed nationwide to conserve energy during World War II and lifted again after the war ended in 1945.
Without a federal mandate, chaos ensued. In Iowa alone, 23 different pairs of start and end dates were used in cities and towns around the state.
“On one West Virginia bus route, passengers had to change their watches seven times in 35 miles,” Prerau wrote. “The situation led to millions of dollars of costs to several industries, especially transportation and communications. Extra railroad timetables alone cost the equivalent today of over $12 million per year.”
Now, the U.S. government doesn’t require that states mandate daylight saving but does demand those on board do it at the same time on the clock and for the same stretch of the year.
Daylight saving begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, when clocks are turned back an hour.
For the record: Clocks spring ahead before spring, which doesn’t officially begin until March 20.
Sleep experts estimate millions of people are affected — however temporarily — by the return of daylight saving each spring. If the change proves troublesome long term, avoid reading, eating or watching TV in bed. Still awake? Go for complete quiet and darkness, and a slightly cooler temperature in the room.
Let there be light!
