Well, tonight we change the clocks again — we move them ahead one hour at precisely 2 am. It then becomes 3 am. Some people like changing the clocks — most don’t. I like having more daylight in the evening, but I don’t really care what the clock says when the sun sets… I just like the light.
Over the years, I’ve discussed daylight saving time (it’s saving, not savings) and the people like William Willett and Benjamin Franklin that were instrumental in getting it implemented.
My grandparents never bought into the whole concept and referred to daylight saving time as “city time.” When President Wilson signed daylight saving time into law during WW I, it was commonly called “fast time.” During WW II when it was again put into effect, it was called, “war time.”
Research has determined that daylight saving time negatively affects night owls more than morning people. Researchers also found that cluster headaches increase during the transitions into and out of daylight saving time. Speaking of researchers — many do not agree that daylight saving conserves energy. One of their arguments is that the increase in air-conditioned homes has offset any savings in lighting.
Globally, about 70 countries around the world implement daylight saving time, but different countries change their clocks at different times. The only major industrialized countries that do not observe DST are Japan, India, and China. Most equatorial countries do not observe daylight saving time because daylight hours are similar during all the seasons.
United States federal law does not require any state to observe daylight saving time. However, if a state chooses to follow DST, it must follow federal start and end dates — beginning at 2:00 am on the second Sunday in March and ending at 2:00 am on the first Sunday in November.
In the United States, DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Somoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Norther Mariana Islands, and Arizona. (Arizona’s Navajo Nation does observe daylight saving.)
So here we go again — tomorrow, lots of people will be confused for at least a few days. Maybe there should be some kind of a phone alert (like an Amber alert) that goes out to everyone ….
I usually just try to not think of it as losing an hour of sleep — it’s just an hour closer to breakfast. And then again, maybe with the way things are going, we didn’t really lose an hour — maybe it just fled the country…. to Canada or someplace.
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