At 2.00am local time on Sunday 2nd November, most of North America will be gaining an hour of sleep. In the UK and Europe the clocks “went back”, last Sunday, October 26.
Changing the clocks is always carried out on a Sunday to minimize disruption. Anyone who has forgotten to adjust their watch or has failed to allow for the 1-hour change in Daylight Saving Time (DST) can find travel plans disrupted or much to their embarrasment, an appointment missed or arrived at too early.
Canada and The U.S.
Not every state in the U.S. puts back the clocks to standard time. Residents of Hawaii and Arizona do not adjust their clocks, nor do United States Territories. The northern state of Alaska still observes DST but there is a move by Alaska's lieutenant governor Loren Leman to try to abolish it. Alaska’s difference in daylight from summer to winter is already extreme due to the state’s northerly latitude. The same applies to Florida, due to its southerly latitude. Since 1970s, Canadian provinces and territories have matched their timings to coincide with the United States.
Contrary to the rest of Europe, DST timings were adjusted in 2007 by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, to begin on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November for Canada and the USA. In Europe it is traditionally the third Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October.
So why does a significant portion of the world adjust its clocks on an annual basis – 1-hour forward in spring and 1-hour back in fall?
Daylight Saving Time — the Benefits and Drawbacks
Turning the clocks back and forwards has always proved controversial. It proves advantageous for retailers, sporting events and other activities who are able to exploit an extra hour of daylight. However, it can prove problematical for those whose businesses are tied to the sun, such as farming or entertainment.
An extra hour of daylight saves energy and has been proved to reduce traffic fatalities according to "Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities" in the American Journal of Public Health 1985-92–95.
There is also evidence to suggest that turning our clocks back by 1-hour can help the heart. In Stephanie Nano’s article “ Turning Back the Clocks Can Help Your Heart," from the Associated Press, October 30, 2008, "Swedish researchers discovered by keeping records for over 20 years, that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks were set back an hour, possibly because people got an extra hour of sleep.”
However, the bi-annual shifts in timing can complicate timekeeping. Travel can be disrupted, along with the working of machines such as medical devices and heavy equipment. In the commercial world, meetings, recordkeeping, timekeeping can be disrupted, although the majority of computer-based systems adjust themselves automatically.
Daylight Saving Time — Its History
According to Andrea Thompson’s “Daylight Saving Time – Why we do it,” (October 31st, 2008) on Livescience.com, it was in the 1700s when people first recognized the potential of saving energy by turning the clocks ahead by 1-hour in summer; even one of America’s greatest scientific minds, Benjamin Franklin, made reference to it in 1784.
However, DST was not actually first formally proposed until the 1900s by William Willet, an English builder. In 1907 Willet published a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" which proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in the summer, which he claimed would save £2.5 million in lighting costs.
William Willett did not live to see his proposal become law, as he died in 1915. Daylight saving was finally introduced in May 1916 by Winston Churchill's government during World War One, as there was a dire need to save coal. The UK's wartime prime minister paid tribute to the Willet in his publication "A Silent Toast to William Willet," from Sir Winston Churchill's Publications and Resources, at The Churchill Centre.
Since then it has be introduced (and in some cases disbanded) by many countries across the globe at various stages during the 20th century. Australia introduced DST during the First World War, and was used again during the Second. During both World Wars, the United States and Great Britain observed daylight saving time.
Countries Who Use Daylight Saving Time
According to Nano's article, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide live in countries that use daylight saving time. In addition to most of North America and Europe, these include areas of South America, a few areas of Africa, New Zealand and parts of Australia. The Middle East and the Far East and Indian Sub Continent do not practice DST, although at one time countries like India, Japan and China did.
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