Spring Forward to Daylight Saving Time

Today, my Walkabout begins. As you read this and future articles here in Our Caravan, please remember that I asked you to join me in my Walkabout in search of time because of the learning you too will experience. My Walkabout is not intended to be a solitary journey. Neither is it intended that I will share with you everything I may have read or learned. The Walkabout is meant to be a journey of self learning. I will always look for something I didn’t know before I started but as you also explore, you and I will likely discover different aspects of the same thing. I like that possibility. We both will grow!

I promise that I will always try to remember to provide you with expanded opportunities to see and grow on your own. I have a slight head start on you today because I now have several pages of typed and handwritten notes in front of me. I certainly will not use all of what I have found so there is much that you can consider on your own.

The Daylight Saving Time we will explore in this article is not a natural patterned event like a change in seasons but I think it is appropriate for me to begin my Walkabout by considering some of information associated with its anticipated arrival.

Setting our clocks 1 hour forward in the spring is often referred to as “Daylight Savings Time” even though “Daylight Saving Time” is the correct spelling. DST is a good way to avoid the issue. The direction to Spring forward literally reminds all of us that we must move our clocks one hour forward but it is also a gentle reminder of the anticipated arrival of calendar spring. This year, the season we call spring arrives eight days later, on Monday, March 20. The first day of the spring season is the day of the year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward (on March 20th or 21st). This day is known as the Vernal Equinox. The Vernal (Spring) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere is the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.

Daylight Saving Time (DST will be used in all remaining references)) begins on Sunday, March 12 and ends on Sunday, November 5. Remember, you don’t really save an hour. You simply move it from morning to evening to give you more time for fun things.

Even though the DST arrival and departure is cyclical, the date for the arrival of DST actually varies annually. Observe the changing the arrival dates of DST from 2015 through 2019: 2015(March 8), 2016 (March 13), 2017 (March 12), 2018 (March 11) and 2019 (March 10).

DST Facts:

Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay called “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” and sent it to the editor of the Journal de Paris in 1784. “In the essay, he suggested, although jokingly, that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning, making use of natural morning light instead.”

In 1895, New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson submitted a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society. He considered a two hour time shift forward in October and a two hour shift back in March. Interest was expressed but there was no action taken.

In 1905, British builder William Willett came up with the idea of setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April and back by the same amount in the four Sundays in September.

On April 30, 1916 Germany was the first country to introduce DST to save fuel for the war effort.

In 1918 in the U.S., President Woodrow Wilson signed into law “Fast Time” supporting the war effort in World War. This activity was suggested by Robert Garland a Pittsburgh industrialist who saw the plan in action in the United Kingdom. Garland has been referred to as the “Father of Daylight Saving”. Only seven months later the initiative was repealed. However, Pittsburgh, Boston and New York continued to use it. In 1942 “Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted year-round DST in the United States”.

I found it interesting that the names of each time zone changed along with Daylight Saving Time. For example, Eastern Standard Time (EST) becomes Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) as DST moved across the country. As you might expect the transition could cause major difficulties with transportation. Therefore, Under the Uniform Time Act, the department of Transportation is in charge of time zones in the United States and it ensures that jurisdictions observing Daylight Saving time begin and end on the same date.

Congress extended DST for ten months in 1974 and eight months in 1975 to save energy following the 1973 oil embargo. It proved successful in saving the energy equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil each day. It also became the focus of a national complaint that dark winter mornings endangered the lives of children going to school.

Since 1986 the United States had observed Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October. The bill called for Daylight Saving Time to begin earlier on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. On Monday, August 8, 2005 President Bush signed into law a broad energy bill that extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks beginning in 2007.

DST is now in use in over 70 countries worldwide. There is no standard for beginning and ending from country to country. However, the European Union (EU) has standardized DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

Given that nations close to the equator do not see huge changes in the hours of daylight between summer and winter DTS is generally not practiced. If interested, you can easily discover the countries which do and those which do not practice DST.

Some selected Facts about DST

Even after roughly 100 years people still disagree that the hour forward and back in fall has the desired effect.

Traditional dairy farmers often protest the DST creates a time challenge for milk collecting. Modern farms often use robot milking and this argument can be shown to be void. Farms in developing countries are still an active part of the ongoing debate.

Countries such as Egypt often change the DST dates because authorities need to make themselves felt.

Muslim countries, like Morocco, have suspend DST until the end of Ramadan.

According to a 2013 Rasmussen Report, only 37 % of Americans favor DST compared to 45% the year before.

There have been studies which link DST to reduced accidents and road injuries.

As you might expect, the American tourist industry really welcomes DST because it makes people stay out later and those people spend more money. In other countries such as Australia a study in Queensland as reported by the Courier mail estimated a $4 billion a year in lost business simply because Queensland does not practice DST.

Arguments against DST

Guatemala decided not to have DST because citizens leaving for work in the dark were being exposed to potential crime.

Certain studies show that there is an increase in both heart attacks and road accidents on the days clocks are set forward one hour in the spring.

There are apparently a lot of people, beside me, who, at least in the short term, do not adjust well to the loss of an hour of sleep. Loss of sleep decreases productivity, concentration and general a sense of well-being in a whole bunch of folks. On the other hand, other studies have claimed that after returning the clocks back to standard time a lot of other people find that November change can trigger seasonal depressions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or winter depression.

Suggestion to make DST easier to manage:

Set your alarm a little earlier on the Friday and Saturday before the Sunday change. This is supposed to make it easier to get up on the next Monday morning. Mondays with or without DST were never easy for me.

Eat a healthy breakfast, first thing in the morning. Some studies claim that food tells your body it is time to start the day.

Try to get as much sunlight as possible because it is suggested that sunlight helps to adjust your body clock.

Help your kids to adjust by changing their bedtime a little bit earlier during the week leading to DST.

Just for fun.

Instead of DST, some locations change their standard time back and forth every year. For example, the Antarctic research station Troll switches Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to Central European Time (CTE), and then later it goes on to Central European Summer Time(CEST) to adjust to the local time and its mother country, Norway. Troll time then changes back again to CET and finally to GMT. Now that is really disorienting!

More DST ideas for you to consider on your own

In the beginning of this article I promised to drop some things you can discover on your own. Clearly I have left you a good cookie trail but here are some other potential points of interest: 

How about a couple of books to read? You can find both of them at Amazon. Seize the Daylight by David Prerau and Spring Forward: The Unreal Madness of Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing.

If you don’t like to fool around adjusting clocks, you might consider looking for a clock which automatically adjusts to DST just like your computer. Yes, they do exist. Although there are probably other places to find them, simply begin your search at Amazon. Actually there are more clocks with the ability to change to DST than I really expected.

What is UTC?

What is the history of DST in Canada and Mexico?

What is a time zone and how is it determined?

By all means, enjoy your own searches and join me again for my next side trip on my Walkabout. I have no idea where I will stop to look but it will probably be fun. I have a feeling something will catch my eye and I want you to see it too.