At 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, Americans will adjust their clocks, so that it is 1:00 AM. But besides getting an extra hour of sleep, what is the purpose of this annual “fall back?”
Daylight savings dates back to the early 1900s when Germany first decided to implement the practice, in efforts to conserve energy during World War I. The U.S. followed suit shortly afterwards, but it wasn’t until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that Daylight Saving Time became a national standard. America implemented the practice for essentially the same reason Germany did. They figured that if the sun sets at 8 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., we’d likely spend less time with the lights on at night, saving electricity. However, studies have shown that there is no convincing evidence that the current method does much in the way of conserving energy. While the use of lighting may have been reduced, there also seems to be an increase in heating and air conditioning use.
Getting an hour of sleep is something to rejoice over, but what is to be said about the hour of sleep we lose in March? Annoying for sure, but is it really that big of a deal? Well, one study shows that this disturbance of our biological clocks can result in our reduced productivity, even in the activities we perform routinely. This can be detrimental when it comes to activities that require attentiveness, such as driving.
So this begs the question that always arises at this time of the year: why do we still observe Daylight Saving Time? There is not really a good answer to this. Part of it is tradition, but it is mostly just because undoing it would take a lot of work. An act of Congress would be necessary to end Daylight Saving Time or extend it all year round, but considering the current pace of legislation, this is probably not going to be on the to-do list anytime soon. So for now, just set your alarms an hour later and be grateful for the extra sleep!
