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It’s that time of year where we change clocks – the start of Daylight Saving Time. On Sunday, March 12, much of the United States will “spring forward” the clocks by an hour, producing an extra hour of daylight in the evening. How did this quirk for time come about, and where is the future headed for it?

The history of Daylight Saving Time dates back to World War I, when the German Empire pushed their clocks forward an hour to use less fuel and lighting to assist the war effort. During the entirety of World War II, the U.S. established “War Time,” moving clocks forward to add an hour of daylight in the evening. This was repealed at the end of the war.

In 1966, time changes became an annual event, first lasting from late April to early October; then changing to early April and late October from 1987 to 2006. The modern-day time-shift schedule came about in 2007, when concerns about energy use prompted a modification, starting the second Sunday in March and ending the first Sunday in November.

The name Daylight Saving Time implies that we are somehow banking sunlight for later use, but it is in fact just a manipulation of the clock by an hour. That is, sunset on Sunday is an hour later than it was on Saturday, but at the same time sunrise is now an hour later than the previous day. This artificial alteration of time also impacts people and animals. With dark skies lasting later in the morning, studies have shown that the March time change leads to a significant increase in accidents during morning rush hour. The same is true for the November change in the evenings. Likewise, kids, used to a specific bedtime, may find themselves wide awake later into the evening.

Two states don’t participate in the clock-swapping, each for their own reasons. Hawaii, located in the tropics, remains on “Standard Time” year round – the change in sunrise and sunset times over the course of a year isn’t substantial enough to necessitate changes. Most of Arizona, which is infamous for its scorching summers, prefers the cooler evenings arrive sooner, and so it also remains on Standard Time year-round. The exception in the Grand Canyon State is the Navajo Indian Reservation, which stretches into nearby Utah and New Mexico, both of which observe Mountain Daylight Time during the summers.

Given the negative implications of a twice-yearly clock change, there has been a recent push to go to a permanent Daylight Saving Time once and for all. This idea is not without its own negative implications – sunrises would be shifted an hour later in the winter, meaning that many northern states wouldn’t see the sun rising until well after 8 a.m. in December and January. This would cause significant implications for schoolchildren waiting at the bus stop in cold, dark conditions. Just for example, in late December, Bismarck, N.D., would remain dark until nearly 9 a.m., with the sunrise not scheduled for 9:30 in the morning. In any case, this change is still years off, as federal law currently allows states to opt out of daylight saving, but not standard time.

The U.S. isn’t alone in tinkering with time. Canada and extreme northern Mexico change their clocks at the same time that Americans do, while the remainder of Mexico remains on the early April-to-late October schedule. Europe uses “Summer Time” from the end of March through the end of October, although EU legislation may require countries to choose permanent standard-or-summer in the next few years. Portions of Australia, as well as New Zealand, Chile and Paraguay move their clocks forward in October before moving them back around the beginning of April.

Here’s a couple interesting Daylight Saving Time factoids for you:

Morocco observes an annual time change, but it isn’t related to seasonal daylight. Instead, the clocks are set back for an hour for the Islamic month of Ramadan, allowing the daily fast to end an hour sooner in the evening.
The Troll, Antarctica, research station runs on what could be called “double-reverse Daylight Saving Time.” Operated by Norway, the station is kept in time with the home country between March and October, but during the busier summer research period the time is pushed back 2 hours to be in line with the world-standard UTC.
Do you dislike the time change? You would hate some of the early ideas for the time swing. In order to limit the sudden impact of an hour’s shift, Briton William Willett suggested changing clocks by 20 minutes each over three consecutive weekends in April and again in September.

Officially, the time changes in this country at 2 a.m. in your time zone on Sunday. While many electronics, such as cell phones, tablets and computers will automatically update, other devices will need their clocks adjusted - before you go to bed on Saturday night, make sure you’ve made the jump to Daylight Time!

Story Image: Sunset over a bay (Willem Bouwmeester, Pixabay)

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Time to "Spring Forward" As Daylight Saving Approaches