What Is The Purpose Of Daylight Savings Time?

At one point in our lives, all of us remember our parents moving the clocks back by an hour. This is a common phenomenon all over the world but as it turns out that a lot of people are still unaware as to why it happens. This is the reason why we thought of curating this guide today.

Up ahead we plan on giving you some interesting and detailed insights into what daytime saving is, how it works, who benefits from daylight savings time, what three u.s. states do not observe daylight saving time, what is the reason for daylight savings time and when was daylight savings time created and why.

Let’s first find out what daylight saving is.

What is Daylight Savings?

This phenomenon has tons of different names depending on each region. In the United States and Canada, this is known as daylight savings time or daylight time while in the United Kingdom, European Union, and other places, it is also referred to as summertime. Most commonly, you will find people referring to it as daylight saving time (DST). Now that we are a bit clear on terms, this is what daylight savings are. Every year, some countries decide to move or advance their clocks during the summer season. This is not just limited to summers but is also done in some early warmer months as well. It is done so that the time it takes to get dark comes later each day when tallied with the clock.

It is a good practice and turns the productivity levels higher. If the concept of daylight savings time was eradicated, there is not much difference that would take place. If there were no daylight saving time, you will change the most in winters. In winters, the days will be over soon as they are dark and short and in summers you will have a lot of daylight hours.

When Was Daylight Savings Time Created And Why?

The seed idea for daylight savings time was first put forward by Benjamin Franklin in the year 1784. It was done through this paper, which was known as “An Economical Project.” It was just a seed of an idea which stated that people can economize the use of candlelight by getting out of bed earlier in the morning and it was supposed to be a joke,

the same seed it was later on pondered over more by a builder in London known as William Willet. He wrote a paper called:” Waste of Daylight” in which he proposed that all clocks should be moved ahead 20 minutes in April. But there was a slight adjustment as well. He said that this should only be done on the four Sundays of the month. The same 20 minutes shall be then moved backward on the four Sundays of September.

History goes that one morning, William Willet was riding through the Petts Woods which is near Croydon. During this early morning riding session, he suddenly came upon the fact that all the houses which were nearby had one common thing: the blinds were closed for all those houses. What was weird was that it happened even when the sun was out and had risen a while back. This meant that people were getting up later when the sun had already been out.

All of Willett’s sessions then led to serious actions. He started gaining the attention of noteworthy people and authorities about this thing. After gaining some serious attraction, a bill was introduced by Sir Robert Pearce in the House of Commons. The bill stated that everyone needed to adjust their clocks. Bill was drafted in 1999 but blown off by farmers as they ridiculed the idea. There were quite an amount of people who were opposing the idea and considered it to be lame.

The entire dilemma carried on to World War 1 and then after the war ended, there were several acts which were passed based on the Daylight Savings Time. Different times and months were allocated in the initial months.

Truly the importance of DST was observed after the second world war. This was when the clocks were moved ahead two hours of GMT in the summer season. As a result, the same time period was called Double Summer-time. The concept of Daylight Saving was first used in 1908 in Thunder Bay, Canada. Some say that Austria and Germany were the first countries when they did it in 1916 but Canada was a good eight years ahead of them. Canada might’ve been the first one to initiate the process but it was Germany who made it famous during world war 1.

What Is The Reason For Daylight Savings Time?

The major reason for day time savings as one can guess is saving energy. It is a huge nominal reason as to why daylight savings is so popular all over the world. When it was brought into action during World War 1, it was done for the sake of war effort, then later, once again when daylight savings was implemented especially to save energy is when Arab members of PEC which if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries refused to sell petroleum to the United States. These days, a trial period of all year-long daylight savings time was implemented to save energy.

What Three U.S. States Do Not Observe Daylight Saving Time?

IT has been common confusion among people whether the figure was two or three for the number of states that do not observe daylight savings time. But the actual figure is two. There are a total of two US states that do not observe daylight saving. These states are Hawaii and Arizona. And even in Arizona Navajo Nation does observe DST. There are other territories in the US as well that do not observe daylight savings time such as Puerto Rico, territories of American Samoa, Mariana Islands, Us Virgin Islands, and Guam,

Meanwhile, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas are some of the states who are trying to implement daylight savings time on a year-long basis. Ontario passed a bill on 27th November 2020 to make daylight savings time permanent. The people in Hawaii and Arizona are against the concept of daylight saving.

There is even a quote by Peggy Boquist mocking it. Peggy Boquist is the legislative assistant and wife of Senator Brain Boquest. They support the Oregon bill to kill the daylight savings idea on a yearly basis. “She stated that changing the time on our clocks twice a year does only one good thing, in my humble opinion: It reminds me to change the batteries in my smoke alarms.”

Who Benefits From Daylight Savings Time?

1.   Economy

First off, the most beneficial aspect of daylight savings time as stated above is good for the economy since there is an element of saving involved on a huge scale. DST means that there will be a lot of people who will be shopping after their work and hence as a result increasing the retail sales of the country. This can only be possible in the case of more daylight which is availed by pushing clocks an hour back.

Furthermore,  people who are on the road often tend to buy more snacks and gas. In the US, the golf industry reported a high-profit margin of around 200-400 million because they had more hours and golfers could come and play forever longer. Similarly, the barbecue industry reported high profits too. The Chamber of Commerce likes to implement daylight-savings time because it has a lot of positive impacts on society.

2.   Law Enforcement Authorities

You might be wondering how law-enforcing authorities can benefit from daylight savings time but they can. When there are long hours in a day it means drivers will be driving safely and there are fewer chances of car accidents and thus lower pedestrian accidents as well.it was found that the rate of robberies also decreased by 7% on an overall basis and by 27% in the evenings during the spring/summer season.
With a lot more daylight than there used to be, the chances of robberies and other vile acts have gone down a lot. It is also made easier for people to go out on walks or jogging safely since there are a lot of people out at the same time. This is how daylight savings- time helps law enforcing officers as well and their workload is decreased when there is safety all around.

3.   Health

Lastly, when there’s more time in the day with daylight, people tend to go out more often and pursue healthy activities as well. When it gets dark early, the first thought in all our minds is to go back home and get some peace from the darkness. But when it’s daylight longer, people enjoy being outdoors. This shows that there’s a lot of physical benefits in it for the individuals as well.

Daylight Saving Time 2020

Coming to the current year the daylight saving time in 2020 started on  8th March. At the time when the local standard time was about to hit 02:00:00, all the locks in the US were advanced and pushed one (1) hour ahead. After this, the time was 03:00:00. This was done on 8th MArch, 2020 which happened to be a Sunday. During this period, the sunset and the sunrise was one hour late as compared to the times on 7th march. As a result of this, people in the US has access to more daylight or sunlight since they were up earlier than usual,

Starting on 8th March the daylight saving time 2020 came to an end on 1st November 2020. This was a Sunday. On 1st November when according to the daylight timings it was about to be 02:00:00, the clocks were pushed one hour back to their original time according to the local standard time and the time was 01:00:00 instead. Similar to how sunset and sunrise were one hour late, after 1st November, the sunset and sunrise were scheduled back on track and they were one hour earlier as compared to what the timings were a day before.

This tradition has been going on for ages and people tend to be very curious as to when the daylight savings time started back in the earlier years. One question we had was “when did daylight savings time start in 1970?” Well, in the year 1970, April 26th was the day when daylight savings time started.

Disadvantages of Daylight Savings Time

1.   Productivity Levels

There are also some minor disadvantages of daylight savings time such as a decrease in the productivity level of the employees and workers. When peopleare forced to get up earlier in the morning,the productivity level tends to decrease as they’re more inclined to come to work. However this isn’t a major con and can be worked upon once individuals get into the routine.

2.   Sleep Levels

Since people would be asked to wake up earlier they are bound to the lesser amount of self as what they used to get. There will be a minor effect for people who tend to sleep in the evenings or those who need to have a longer hours.but after several researches it was found that this again was not that big of a deal once individuals were into the routine they managed to do pretty good in the circumstances, also, there were no harmful impacts on the lives and health of these people.

Conclusion

Daylight savings time is observed in over 70c countries of the world. Some have even passed bills to make it a permanent thing for all yearly basis. The advantages derived from Daylight Savings Time are far more than the disadvantages. It is a helpful concept and is not just good individually for the economies of the various countries but it is also beneficial to the environment.