Daylight Savings Time Explained

Every year, one Monday in the spring, everyone in America (save for Arizona) wakes up an hour later than they should have. As they groggily slump into school or work, they wonder why everyone stares, and then they glance up at the clock: it's 9 AM rather than 8 AM. Once again, Daylight Savings Time has clenched another victim. At 2 AM on one Sunday every year, the time shifts forward one hour and everyone has to change his or her clocks.

I was under the assumption that Daylight Savings Time was established to provide more sunlight for the harvest in farming cultures of the 17^th and early 18^th century, but a little reading has proved me very wrong. The United States Astronomical Applications Department gives the dates and background information for Daylight Savings Time. Daylight Savings Time is meant to maximize the hours of sunlight, so that we can save energy. According to the California Energy Commission, "a good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home," ("Daylight Saving Time..."). Therefore, if we can make the sun appear to set one hour later in the evenings, families will reduce their energy consumption in the evenings, which offsets any increase in energy consumption in the mornings ("Daylight Saving Time...").

Today we've become accustomed to this yearly cycle of "spring-ing forward and fall-ing back," so it seems that this tradition has gone on for ages. Daylight Savings Time, in fact, is only about 90 years old. In the Act of March in 1918, Congress established both standard time zones and a daylight saving time ("Daylight Time"). This act was repealed the next year and it wasn't until World War II, when the country was using all spare energy to support the war effort, that it was reintroduced into our nation's timekeeping ("Daylight Time").

From 1942 - 1945, Daylight Savings Time was observed nationally, but after the war, it became a local matter ("Daylight Time"). Different states preferred different methods of managing daylight savings, so Congress was forced to enact the Uniform Time Act of 1966 ("Daylight Time"). Ironic, isn't it, that our country needed a law to make time uniform? But the actual problem was that it was becoming difficult to keep track of what time it was in what state. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established the start of Daylight Savings Time as the last Sunday of April, and required that it would last until the last Sunday in October ("Daylight Time"). The time change was to occur at 2 AM ("Daylight Time").

Obviously, Daylight Savings Time has altered since the 60s because the Daylight Savings Time that I remember has always started earlier than late April. In 1974, Congress changed Daylight Savings Time drastically: it began on January 6^th ("Daylight Time"). This drastic change was caused by the energy crisis of that period, which began when OPEC decreased the amount of oil it supplied to several nations because of the United States' involvement in the war between Israel and Syria/Egypt ("Oil Embargo"). The radical change in the 1970s was clearly meant to maximize the use of the daylight, but their measures seem especially extreme. After only two years, the date returned to the last of April ("Daylight Time").

It would seem that the saga of Daylight Savings Time was over, but the country was still not set on the date. In 1987, Daylight Savings Time began on the first Sunday in April, which is the approximate start date that I remember growing up ("Daylight Time"). In 2007, however, Daylight Savings Time was changed again to where it is today: the first Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November ("Daylight Time"). This year, 2009, Daylight Savings Time will start on March 8^th, so don't forget to set your alarms!

Works Cited

Aldrich, Bob. "Daylight Saving Time - Saving Time, Saving Energy." The California Energy Commission. Last Modified: 29 JAN 2009.

"Daylight Time." Astronomical Applications Department. U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington DC. Last modified: 30 OCT 2008.

NEWTON, DAVID E. "Oil Embargo". 2005. January 28 2009.