(Brian Davis/95.3 MNC) You’ll want to remember to turn your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night before you go to bed, because at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 8, Daylight Saving Time begins.
Clocks will need to be manually set ahead, although most personal electronics, including mobile phones and tablets, tend to do so automatically.
Daylight Saving Time, called “Summer Time” in other places of the world, is designed to move an hour of daylight from the daytime into the evening, and it’s not limited to just the U.S. as many other nations do the same thing, but on different dates.
Some “Fun Facts” about Daylight Saving Time:
- Daylight Saving Time was first conceived by none other than Benjamin Franklin, during his time as a delegate in Paris, France in 1784. Franklin detailed his thoughts in an essay called “An Economical Project”. Some of Franklin’s friends, inventors of a new type of oil lamp were so impressed by the idea that they stayed in touch with Franklin after he returned to the United States.
- The first serious advocacy for the concept was in Great Britain, by London builder William Willett, who penned a pamphlet entitled “Waste of Daylight” (1907). Willett wanted clocks advanced by 20 minutes each of the four Sundays in April, and then moved back 20 minutes on four Sundays in September. His idea was largely ridiculed.
- Germany was the first country to enact Daylight Saving Time. Following Germany’s lead, the British Parliament enacted “Summer Time” in 1916 to a storm of opposition and protest.
- Daylight Saving Time was first adopted in the United States in 1918, during World War I. It continued through World War II with a focus on productivity for war time. During the Energy Crisis of the 1970’s Daylight Saving Time played a role in conservation efforts across the U.S.
- Proponents of DST generally argue that it saves energy, promotes outdoor leisure activity in the evening (in summer), and is therefore good for physical and psychological health, reduces traffic accidents, reduces crime or is good for business.
- Opponents argue that DST disrupts our circadian rhythms, negatively impacting our health, that it increases fatal traffic accidents, that the actual energy savings are inconclusive, and that DST increases health risks such as heart attack. Farmers have tended to oppose DST.
- One final trivia fact: Daylight Saving Time is not enacted in Countries on and near the equator. There’s no need to because their day and night times don’t vary much as more Northern or Southern nations do, due to the tilt of the axis of the Earth’s rotation.
Love it or hate it, when you wake up Sunday morning, it’ll be here. And just around the corner – Spring.