Daylight Saving Time kicks in early Sunday Nov 7 meaning youll need to set your clocks back an hour on Saturday night
Of course talking about DST brings up the inevitable debate about the usefulness of the practice
On Sunday at 2 am well turn our clocks one hour heralding the end of daylight saving time for much of the country
The biggest consequence The change shifts daylight back into the morning hours For 9 to 5 office workers it means saying goodbye to leaving work while its still light out And for weekend workers it means an additional glorious hour of sleep on Sunday Hurrah
Yet theres still a lot of confusion about daylight saving time The first thing to know Yes it ends in the fall just as the decrease in daylight hours is becoming noticeable
Lets sort it all out
1 Why do we need to save daylight hours in the summer
Daylight saving time in the US started as an energy conservation trick during World War I and became a national standard in the 1960s
The idea is that in the summer months we shift the number of daylight hours we get into the evening So if the sun sets at 8 pm instead of 7 pm wed presumably spend less time with the lights on in our homes at night saving electricity
It also means that youre less likely to sleep through daylight hours in the morning since those are shifted an hour later too Hence saving daylight hours for the most productive time of the day
2 Isnt it daylight savings time not daylight saving time
No its definitely called daylight saving time Not plural Be sure to point out this common mistake to friends and acquaintances Youll be really popular
3 Does it actually lead to energy savings
As Joseph Stromberg outlined in an excellent 2015 Vox article the actual electricity conservation from the time change is unclear or nonexistent
Despite the fact that daylight saving time was introduced to save fuel there isnt strong evidence that the current system actually reduces energy use or that making it year round would do so either Studies that evaluate the energy impact of DST are mixed It seems to reduce lighting use and thus electricity consumption slightly but may increase heating and AC use as well as gas consumption Its probably fair to say that energy wise its a wash
4 Why doesnt Arizona or Hawaii change its clocks
Arizona has a simple way to deal with daylight saving time Most of the state ignores it
Fifty years ago the state legislature opted to keep the clocks in most of the state in standard time all year One reason Arizona summers are very hot and an earlier sunset gives residents more time to enjoy tolerable temperatures before bed as AZcentral explains Whats confusing The Navajo Nation in Arizona does use DST
Hawaii also doesnt observe DST The island state is the farthest south of all states and rejected it because it doesnt see a hugely noticeable daylight hour difference between winter and summer months
5 What would happen if daylight saving time were abolished Or if it were extended forever
Its worth thinking about what would happen if Congress abolished daylight saving time or kept it going all year long
How might our patterns change Blogger and cartographer Andy Woodruff decided to visualize this with a great series of maps
The goal of these maps is to show how abolishing daylight saving time extending it all year or going with the status quo changes the number of days we have reasonable sunrise and sunset times
Reasonable as defined by Woodruff is the sun rising at 7 am or earlier or setting after 5 pm so one could conceivably spend some time in the sun before or after work
This is what the map looks like under the status quo of twice yearly clock shifts A lot of people have unreasonable sunrise times the dark spots for much of the year
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Heres how things would change if daylight saving were abolished that is if we just stuck to the time set in the winter all year Its better particularly on the sunrise end
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And heres what would happen if daylight saving were always in effect The sunrise situation would actually be worse for most people But many more people would enjoy after work light and theres a strong argument to make that this after work light is actually worth more More on that below
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In 2015 Stromberg made the compelling case that the daylight saving time shift into the evening should be extended year round Having more light later could benefit us in a surprising number of ways
People engage in more leisure activities after work than beforehand so wed likely do more physical activity over sedentary leisure activities Relatedly studies show that kids get more exercise when the sun is out later in the evening
Stromberg also cites some evidence that robberies decrease when theres more sun in the evening hours
There could be economic gains since people take short trips and buy things after work but not before so a longer DST slightly increases sales he writes
6 Is daylight saving time dangerous
A bit When we shift clocks forward one hour in the spring many of us will lose that hour of sleep In the days after daylight saving time starts our biological clocks are a little bit off Its like the whole country has been given one hour of jet lag
One hour of lost sleep sounds like a small change but we humans are fragile sensitive animals Small disruptions in our sleep have been shown to alter basic indicators of our health and dull our mental edge
And when our biological clocks are off everything about us is out of sync Our bodies run this tight schedule to try to keep up with our actions Since we usually eat a meal after waking up we produce the most insulin in the morning Were primed to metabolize breakfast before even taking a bite Its more efficient that way
Theres some good research that finds taking over the counter melatonin helps reset our body clocks to a new time Read more about that here
Being an hour off schedule means our bodies are not prepared for our actions at any time of the day
One example driving
In 1999 researchers at Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities wanted to find out what happens on the road when millions of drivers have their sleep disrupted
Analyzing 21 years of fatal car crash data from the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration they found a very small but significant increase in road deaths on the Monday after the clock shift in the spring The number of deadly accidents jumped to an average of 835 on the spring forward Monday compared with an average of 782 on a typical Monday
And it seems its not just car accidents Evidence has also mounted of an increase in incidences of workplace injuries and heart attacks in the days after we spring forward
7 How can we abolish daylight saving time or extend it year round
Thats easy Well not really All it would take is an act of Congress But I wouldnt count on this happening any time soon
A much easier plan is to contact Alaska Sleep Clinic is Daylight Saving Time ruins your sleep and affects your health more than it should Dont put off improving your sleep and as a result your life
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