The Clocks Change Sunday to Daylight Saving Time

Sunday the 11th of March the clocks will be changed one hour forward to daylight saving time. This is three weeks earlier than the originally planned date and it will change back a week later than usual on the 4th of November.

This decision was made on order to cut fuel consumption and higher usage of electricity during the evening's peak hours.

In the electronics and computer industry this is being handled as a minor inconvenience, although some companies have had to scramble in order to provide downloadable patches which enable the users of various electronic gadgets to change the programming already in place for the regular change to daylight saving and replace it with the new dates.

The idea was pushed through congress by representative Ed Markey, a democrat from Massachusetts. It was part of a larger measure to encourage new energy technologies, which was passed by congress in 2005 as The Energy Policy Act.

It is estimated that the savings from reduced energy consumption could mean a savings of as much as 10.8 million metric tons in a 13 year period. That isn't a great deal on comparison to the recorded energy consumption in 2004 which reached 5.9 billion metric tons. Although energy consumption goes up for the earlier mornings it goes down for the later evenings and energy consumption is greater in the evenings than during the morning hours.

The idea of Daylights Saving time was believed to have originated with Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but was first established in the United States congress on the 19th of March, 1918 when it was stated that Daylight Saving Time would start on the last Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in October. Farmers did not approve though and it was repealed after 1919. The very first country to use Daylight savings time was Germany in 1916 and The province of Newfoundland in Canada was the first North American area to use Daylight Saving time measures beginning in 1917.

The longer hours allow for more outdoor activities during daylight hours but can adversely affect farmers harvesting their crops early in the morning

The changes in times can also adversely affect sleep routines and sleep patterns, although the body soon adjusts to the changes.

Crime rates are reported to decrease with the increase of daylight hours in the evenings.

Not all areas observe the changes in time, which can be very confusing for businesses and travelers from one area to another. It is not observed in Hawaii or in Arizona with the exception of The Navajo Nation which is present in large numbers in three different states.

To help lessen the confusion about the changes in time twice a year, the expression, "spring forward, fall back" was coined.

The clock jumps forward one hour at the standard time of 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., making that day one hour shorter and the change in the fall makes that one day one hour longer by repeating an hour and jumping back from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m..