What is Daylight Savings?

The idea of Daylight Savings is to make more use of the sunlight in spring, summer, and fall evenings.

The United states is only one of about 70 countries to use Daylight Savings Time (DST)- though, all of Hawaii and parts of Arizona do not observe it. Daylight Savings occurs on the second Sunday in March at 2:00 am when you “spring forward” your clocks by one hour. This lasts until November when the clocks are then set backan hour, also known as “fall back.”

DST was first observed in the United States in 1918 where it was originally called “Fast Time.” It only lasted less than a year until it was reintroduced by Franklin Roosevelt during World War II where it was renamed “War Time.” Up until 1966 DST had no set rules which led to a lot of confusion up until the passing of the Uniform Time Act of 1966. This act allowed the areas who wanted to opt out of Daylight Savings to do so while also establishing a schedule across the country to keep in sync after each time change.

Standard time and daylight savings have one main difference. Standard time is determined by science. Daylight savings is determined by people. As many know, time in a location is determined by the earth’s position related to the sun. That is what creates time zones across the world. Daylight savings affects a location’s standard time by changing it by one hour at a specified time each year. Whether that is an hour forward in spring or backward in fall. 

The only downside to the hour of time change, is that you may feel sleep-deprived from the loss of an hour. Just like you may feel tired earlier during the night when you gain an hour of sleep in the morning. Your body has what is called a circadian rhythm that may fall out of alignment after the clocks are changed. A circadian rhythm helps you keep a regulated sleep cycle that is influenced by light exposure. With the changed light outside and the time change it may cause circadian misalignment.