Although we may have grumbled through our clock adjustments back in March and lamented that hour we lost, we did so with the knowledge that we would get it back in November.
But as we periodically throw our whole schedules off with that one pesky floating hour, we may find ourselves wondering what the point of all this hassle is. Can’t we just leave the clocks where they are all year?
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And indeed, that’s an increasingly popular position to have about Daylight Saving Time, but it helps to know how this all began.
First off, it’s important to know when exactly this time shift goes down.
And since this sign isn’t explaining it very clearly, I will.
Technically, the clocks are supposed to go back at 2 am EST on Sunday, November 3, but it obviously works just as well to do it before you go to bed if you aren’t up that late.
Although Benjamin Franklin is often credited for coming up with the idea, it was proposed more seriously by entomologist George Hudson in 1895.
As National Geographic reported , this was because he wanted more time in the evening to go bug hunting.
Seven years later, William Willett failed to convince the British government that what would later become Daylight Saving Time was a good way to make use of all the natural light we could get.
But when the German government looked for ways to save energy during World War I, they started to appreciate Willet’s idea.
They ended up enshrining Daylight Saving Time into law in 1916. And since most other countries involved in World War I didn’t want to be left at a disadvantage, they soon adopted it as well.
By 1918, the U.S. government would pass the Standard Time Act, which both brought Daylight Saving time to the country and established its time zones.
At the time, this idea legitimately did save on energy costs and help each respective nation’s war effort.
According to National Geographic , this was because coal was the dominant source of energy at the time and it was much less efficient to light homes using coal than it now is through modern electrical grids.
But since the energy-saving powers of Daylight Saving Time are largely outdated, some nations have decided not to partake in it.
As Popular Mechanics reported , neither Iceland nor Egypt observe the time shift.
It’s especially easy to ignore for nations near the equator such as Indonesia, which also doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time.
As National Geographic reported , this is because both the seasons and the difference in how much daylight we receive as they change are more drastic at the earth’s north and south poles.
This is because of the tilt in our planet’s axis towards the sun.
So for those closer to the equator, Daylight Saving time doesn’t make enough of a difference to bother using.
Although it seems like a minor annoyance at worst, the effects of Daylight Saving time may be more profound than they seem.
They’ve been linked to increased heart attack and car accident fatality risks, but this is only observed during a two-day period after the change takes place.
So it becomes a matter of deciding whether several months of experiencing more daylight is worth the drawbacks we observe on the actual days these time shifts take place.
h/t: National Geographic
