Why do we spring forward? Does it really save energy? Is it bad for your health? Get expert answers below. For most Americans, daylight saving time starts at 2 a. Time will fall back to standard time again on Sunday, November 6, , when daylight saving time ends.
The federal government doesn't require U. National surveys by Rasmussen Reports , for example, show that 83 percent of respondents knew when to move their clocks ahead in spring Twenty-seven percent, though, admitted they'd been an hour early or late at least once in their lives because they hadn't changed their clocks correctly.
Ben Franklin—of "early to bed and early to rise" fame—was apparently the first person to suggest the concept of daylight savings, according to computer scientist David Prerau , author of the book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time. While serving as U. Imagine the resources that might be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil, Franklin, tongue half in cheek, wrote to a newspaper.
It wasn't until World War I that daylight savings were realized on a grand scale. Germany was the first state to adopt the time changes, to reduce artificial lighting and thereby save coal for the war effort. Friends and foes soon followed suit. In the U. Between February 9, , and September 30, , the government took it a step further. During this period daylight saving time was observed year-round, essentially making it the new standard time, if only for a few years.
But its beginning and end have shifted—and occasionally disappeared. During the Arab oil embargo, the U. Thirty years later the Energy Policy Act of was enacted, mandating a controversial monthlong extension of daylight saving time, starting in In recent years several studies have suggested that daylight saving time doesn't actually save energy—and might even result in a net loss.
Environmental economist Hendrik Wolff , of the University of Washington, co-authored a paper that studied Australian power-use data when parts of the country extended daylight saving time for the Sydney Olympics and others did not. The researchers found that the practice reduced lighting and electricity consumption in the evening but increased energy use in the now dark mornings—wiping out the evening gains.
This caused widespread confusion, especially in transport and broadcasting. Following the oil embargo, the US Congress extended the DST period to 10 months in and 8 months in , in an effort to save energy. From to , the country observed DST for about 7 months each year.
Sign in. It runs a little slow. Roenneberg, lead researcher for a study of the effects of time shifts, said that humans' biological clocks are stronger than the clocks set by Congress. We forget that there is a biological clock that is as old as living organisms, a clock that cannot be fooled. The pure social change of time cannot fool the clock. Though individuals may see their biological clocks reset, and will get an "extra hour" of sleep or rest over the weekend, researchers say that the stress caused by time changes can be bad for the body.
It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger.
Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account. Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings with an 's' flows more mellifluously off the tongue.
Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries. Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, and Daylight Time Shifting more accurate, but neither is politically desirable.
0コメント