“Spring forward, fall back”: that’s a phrase that has been with many Americans their entire life. It’s hard to comprehend that, Daylight Saving Time (DST) (popularly also known with an “S” as Daylight Savings Time) has not always been a part of American culture.
An hour is an hour, right? Six o’clock is six o’clock. During the 13th Conference of Weights and Measurements, we switched from using the position of the sun to mark time to using the vibrations of a cesium atom to mark time. It would seem that where the sun hangs in the sky is independent of where the hands on a clock rest. Yet, twice a year we shift our clocks so that the relationship between the sun and the hands can better reflect how we live.
We change our clocks twice a year, but why do we do it?
The theory behind DST is to maximize the amount of time people are up and doing things during daylight hours. Ben Franklin originally noticed the need for such a shift. Why sleep when the sun is up and be awake when it is down? It was a waste of lighting oil and candle wax. Today, we don’t typically light our rooms with oil lamps and candle wax. We burn electricity to light our homes. During this era of US history, time wasn’t uniform. The number of seconds in a minute was the same no matter where you went, but there was no standard time. It could be 6pm in one town and 7pm in another. This chaotic range of time continued into the railroad craze. One popular 35 mile route would require seven time changes.
If public transportation was to run properly, the nation needed to be on a standard time. Part of the efforts of early DST proponents was to streamline the various times in the US to set time zones as well as reduce energy demands.
We’re so accustomed to standard times now that we have a hard time conceptualizing and internalizing not having it. Everything from transportation to business transactions depend upon predictable and logical time zones. The concept of energy conservation remains. With the latest “go green” movement and our deeper understanding of carbon footprints, energy conservation plays a bigger role in our day to day lives.
Countries around the world observe DST. They call it “summer time” or “summer hours” in other countries. They all have the same goal: conserve energy and put the bulk of our active lives under the light of the sun. The observance of DST is not uniform around the world or in the US. Russia is normally one hour a head of standard time. During their DST observance, they are two hours ahead of standard time. In the USA, if a locality observes DST and how it observes DST varies from area to area. There’s a part of Indiana that doesn’t observe DST and that allowed the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to conduct a natural study on the effects of DST.
NBER wanted to take a look at energy use in Indiana in the areas that observe Daylight Saving Time and compare that to the energy use of the areas that don’t observe DST. Their findings indicated that the areas that observe DST consume 1% more energy during DST than non-observant areas and during the fall months of DST that energy consumption rose to 2%-4%. They predict that the energy consumption during DST in other parts of the country is even higher. The reason for this is an energy trade off. The demand for energy in regards to lighting does down, but the demand for energy for heating and cooling goes up.
There have been other studies that look at the detriments of DST. Most of these negative effects are related to sleep deprivation in conjunction to the lost hour of sleep. In 1996, the New England Journal of Medicine reported there was an 8% increase in traffic accidents on the days following the lost hour. Follow-up studies did not support those initial findings. In 2000, Swedish researchers concluded that there were no detrimental effects in their society. In 2009, researchers connected to the University of Michigan took note of an increased number of workplace accidents on the Monday following the change to DST.
With all of these negatives, why do we still observe Daylight Savings Time?
There is contradictory data that indicates energy consumption goes down.
Science and “conflicting conclusions” are not strangers. More studies are needed to look at energy consumption during Daylight Saving Time before a definitive conclusion can be reached – and a decision regarding whether we should continue to use DST or not. Other studies indicate DST results in a decrease in traffic accidents and some forms of crime.
So, like it, love it, hate it, understand it, or be baffled by it, Daylight Savings Time is at least here to stay, for the time being (get it: time being?!). But for how long?
We at OnlineClock.net hope that you’ll always remember to update your (offline) clocks and the batteries in your smoke detectors.
As we’ve mentioned previously here on our blog, our various clocks should automatically show you the correct time, even if your region has already changed its clocks due to Daylight Savings Time. How this works: our clocks use the time setting from your computer to show you the correct time, and most modern computers automatically update themselves and even adjust themselves for DST by connecting to Time Servers over the internet. So please, just continue to use our clocks, and you should simply be good to go!
We’ll leave the debates on the subject of whether or not we should continue to use Daylight Saving Time to the academics. 