Daylight Saving Time is finally over as the United States changes back to standard time overnight during the early morning hours on Sunday. The US ends Daylight Saving Time later than other nations because about 20 years ago its government decided to extend the prior at each end by a few weeks as part of a national energy conservation plan.
But not every nation uses Daylight Saving Time, nor even every US state. For example, there would be no point in extending that daylight hour in Scandinavia and in other northern regions where daylight can last for more than 20 hours a day in some places.
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Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour during the spring and back one hour in the fall. This is done to make better use of daylight during the summer months when there is more daylight in the evening.
DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 as a way to save candles. He proposed that people should go to bed earlier in the summer so that they could use fewer candles. However, DST was not widely adopted until the early 20th century.
Today, the main reason for DST is to conserve energy. By shifting our daylight hours to the evening, we can reduce our reliance on artificial lighting.
The idea is simple: if sundown comes an hour later then people will spend more time outdoors during the nicer summer weather and not need to turn lights on until later. The combination of these two factors leads to tremendous energy savings which is good for the environment.
So, why not do this all year round?
Well, during Daylight Saving Time sundown is an hour later, but so is sunrise. And in the summer months when the days are longer sunrise comes early enough that, even when it is delayed for an hour, the sun is already out when people get up and go to work. But in the winter, when days are shorter, if DST were to be implemented then it would still be dark out in the mornings, making it harder for people to get going.
But today many people argue that the benefits offered by Daylight Saving Time are not worth the effort. They also point out the problems caused by the twice a year switchover between DST and standard time. The hour change in time is like being jetlagged and this causes problems for people’s sleep cycles, in turn causing drops in productivity.
And the benefits are not so great either. A 2008 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Daylight Savings Time can actually cause a 1% increase in energy consumption, costing the American economy more than $433 million a year.
Maybe someday governments will decide to do away with Daylight Savings Time. But for now, it is here to stay.
