Spring Forward, Fall Back

As I was walking down the street one day

A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch, yeah

And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is

(I don't)

Does anybody really care

(care)

If so I can't imagine why

(about time)

We've all got time enough to cry

~Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
Chicago

It's that time of the year. At 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, we set our clocks ahead to 3 a.m., and we lose an hour sleep. Most of us don't actually get up in the middle of the night to set the clock ahead, but it's probably safe to say that we all feel that missing hour. People will tell you that they look forward to the extra light in the evening, and it almost makes up for losing an hour of sleep. Almost. The next week is going to be rough. Check out these wellness tips for adjusting to Daylight Saving Time (DST), and see how technology is making it easier to stay on time.

Personally, I always liked the fall time change, but that might have something to do with the fact that my birthday is at the end of October, and, until 2007, I would sometimes get an extra hour of birthday.  

Most of us see DST as an annoyance. We complain, but mostly write it off as just a part of our hectic modern lives. We all know that DST is observed for the purpose of conserving energy, but how? If it's dark in the morning when you get up, you still need to turn on lights, right? 

In time of war.  DST was initially employed in 1916 (during World War I) by Germany. Other countries followed suit. The United States observed it for one year in 1918, but it was so unpopular that it was discontinued on a national level the next year. Municipalities and states, however, were free to establish their own DST. The cities of New York and Chicago were just two municipalities that continued to adjust their clocks twice a year. The lack of uniformity among local and state governments created a hodge-podge of different "time zones" in the years after the war ended.

During World War II, the United States again established a national DST. As before, it was an unpopular idea that was abandoned when the war ended.

Chaos and confusion.  After World War II, the different states and municipalities could once again create their own DSTs. In 1963, Time magazine described the system as "a chaos of clocks." By 1965, there were 23 different pairs of start and end dates in the state of Iowa alone. St. Paul, Minnesota, began DST two weeks before its adjacent neighbor, Minneapolis. Passengers on a 35-mile bus ride from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, passed through seven time zones.

Uniform Time Act. In 1966, DST was here to stay when the U.S. Congress passed legislation standardizing DST from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. States could still opt out of DST and stick with standard time throughout the year. Check out the text of the Act and additional historical information.

Remember when we went to school in the dark? I'm dating myself, of course, because in order to remember going to school in the dark, you would have had to be in school in 1974 and 1975. During the 1973 oil embargo by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in an effort to conserve fuel Congress enacted a trial period of year-round DST, beginning January 6, 1974, and ending April 27, 1975.

The thought was that having increased daylight hours in the winter provided more time in the evening for recreation, reduced lighting and heating demands, reduced crime and reduced automobile accidents. Farmers and other people whose hours were set by the sun rather than by the clock objected because with later sunrises and sunsets, they were unable to arrive at work on time after morning activities or participate in evening activities. Another major concern was children leaving for school in the dark.

The Act was amended in October 1974 to return to standard time for the period beginning October 27, 1974, and ending February 23, 1975, when DST resumed. When the trial period ended in 1975, the country returned to observing summer DST. The Department of Transportation reported that the benefits of the year-round DST were "minimal," and the National Bureau of Standards (NSB) found no significant energy savings or differences in traffic fatalities. The NSB did note, however, statistically signicant evidence of increased fatalities among school-age children in the mornings during the test period, although there was no clear link to DST.

Recent changes. In 1986, DST was changed to start on the first Sunday in April. The ending was still the last Sunday in October.

Energy Policy Act of 2005. The last change to DST was part of a tax bill in 2005. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law, thus extending DST by four weeks. Starting in 2007, DST would start on the second Sunday in March (that would be this coming Sunday) and end on the first Sunday in November (thus giving an extra hour of daylight for Halloween trick-or-treating and ending the possibility of extra birthday time for me).

More information about DST is available in the article, 8 Things You May Not Know About Daylight Saving Time or Daylight Saving Time (Snopes).

Notes

1. Although you often hear it called "Daylight Savings Time," the word is, in fact, singular.
2. DST is in the summer, when you would be on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) or Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). In the winter, it's standard time (abbreviated as EST, CST, MST and PST). This also means that, although you might prefer days with more evening light, winter time with its earlier nightfall, is actually the standard time.
3. Although there has been discussion of eliminating DST, there are currently no plans to do so. In order to abolish DST, the U.S. Congress must legislate the change.
4. DST was not created to aid farmers. In fact, farmers are generally against DST for the reasons mentioned above. See Why do we have Daylight Saving Time?
   
5. Benjamin Franklin is often credited with originating or "inventing" DST, but, in fact, he only proposed a change in sleep schedules, not changing time itself.
6. Most areas of the United States currently observe DST, with the exception of Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation, which does observe DST), Hawaii, and the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

And just for fun: Five Myths About Daylight Saving Time and Test Your DST Knowledge.