It’s time to fall back.
Clocks in every time zone should be reset from 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. in Sunday’s wee hours, affording an extra hour of sleep for all but the most hardy night owls, who instead get an extra hour of insomnia!
Do you know the history as to why we change the clocks?
Note that there’s no “s” on the end of daylight saving — after all, it’s not a coupon. However, the practice of resetting clocks was in a very real way based on saving money.
Well the most important person who is credited for this is Ben Franklin, his saying was “early to bed and early to rise”.
While in Paris, Franklin wrote of being awakened at 6 a.m. and to his surprise, the sun would rise far earlier than he usually did.
Franklin tried to reason with the French that they could save a large amount of money in candles if the would just utilize the daylight for longer. Franklin’s logic was that people should sleep when it’s dark and work during daylight.
Not until World War I would it be that daylight savings was realized on a grand scale. Germany was the first state to adopt the time changes, to reduce artificial lighting and thereby save coal for the war effort.
In the U.S it was not until 1918 that a federal law standardized the yearly start and end of daylight saving time —that is for the states that chose to observe it.
During World War II the U.S. made daylight saving time mandatory for the whole country, as a way to save wartime resources.
Did you know that from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. The Government made it mandatory that Daylight Savings was observed year-round, essentially making it the new standard time, if only for a few years.
Daylight saving time has always been optional for U.S. states. This has been since World War II. The times of year have fluctuated over the years.
Once again the U.S decided that it would be best to extend daylight savings through the winter during the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo. In doing so this resulted in a one percent decrease in the country’s electrical load, according to federal studies cited by Prerau.
Thirty years later the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was enacted, mandating a controversial month-long extension of daylight saving time, starting in 2007.
In 1966 the Uniform Time Act was introduced and put into law but allowed for a loophole that any jurisdiction that didn’t want to be a part of it could opt out. As of today the only U.S States that don’t observe DST are Hawaii and Arizona.
So, Don’t forget to turn the clocks back IF you are one of the states that observes it! Enjoy the extra hour however you please !
