Daylight Savings

Jaqueline Morales

In the United States, Daylight Savings time begins on Sunday, March 13th at 2:00 am. It will end on Sunday, November 6 at 2:00 am. Daylight Saving is the practice of moving the clocks forward a certain amount of time during summer and moving it back again during winter. The biggest reason for practicing DST (Daylight Saving Time) is to conserve energy.

In 1895, Scientist George Vernon Hudson from New Zealand came up with the idea to shift the time two hours forward in October, then shift it back in March. In 1905, British builder William Willet proposed the idea of moving forward the time 20 minutes every Sunday in April and then back 20 minutes on every Sunday in September. DST was presented to the House of Commons in 1908, but the bill was not passed. Many people were against the idea, many of whom were farmers.

DST was first used in  parts of Canada in 1908. They set their clocks forward by an hour. It became popular within the country and soon, more parts of the country participated. During World War I, Germany and Austria were the first countries to practice DST.  In 1916, two years after the war started, Germany and Austria moved their clocks forward by an hour to conserve their energy and fuel. The idea was then popularized throughout Europe.

The United States began practicing DST during the last year of the war, 1918. DST was dropped after the war as it was unpopular among Americans. However, it was picked up again in 1942 as “War Time” and was practiced all year around. War Time lasted until the end of the second world war. DST did not become a standard in the U.S until 1966, which established a uniform Daylight Saving Time within all time zones in the country. Arizona does not participate in Daylight Saving; however, the Navajo Nation within the state does. Hawaii also does not participate in Daylight Saving.

Currently, most of the United States practices Daylight Saving Time by advancing clocks an hour in March and moving it back in November. This means that we lose an hour of sleep. However, we’ll get to enjoy an extra hour of rest beginning in November.

However, there are currently a lot of people who oppose changing our clocks twice a year. According to PBS, studies have shown that changing the clocks can trigger underlying health issues, and that there is a rise in car accidents in the weeks following the time change.

Fortunately for them, their efforts over the past few decades resulted in a success this legislative session. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, reintroduced a bill to shift the United States to daylight savings time permanently. The bill passed, but will not go into effect until 2023. There are still people who think that permanent standard time would be better than permanent daylight time, but for now, this decision seems to have received a positive response from the American public.