It’s that time of year again. Though Daylight Saving Time officially starts at 1:59 am this Sunday March 10th, just make sure to turn your clocks ahead one hour before you go to sleep tomorrow night, Saturday March 9. We lose an hour of sleep, (for one day) but for the late risers amongst us we have one more hour of daylight to enjoy at the end of the day.
A controversial practice, it is a love-hate thing for some people, although by some surveys Americans on the whole like Daylight Saving Time. The major benefit is that the shift in time allows more to be done in the warmer evenings of the year. This is a benefit for those working 9 – 5pm, but not appreciated by those in the agricultural sector who rise very early, only to work in the dark on the farm.
Previously 6 months in length, Daylight Saving Time is now 8 months long, ending the first Sunday in November 3, 2013. First conceived by Benjamin Franklin, he wrote about it in his essay, “An Economical Project.” A New Zealand entomologist, George Vernon Hudson wrote a major paper on the subject in 1895 and then again in 1898, and actually proposed a 2-hour time shift. However it was an Englishman, William Willett (1857-1915) who was the major proponent for it, and probably the reason it exists today. His reasoning is so eloquently put in his pamphlet “Waste of Daylight” (1907): “Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used.”
What is your opinion on Daylight Saving Time? Do you love it or hate it? Which “time” would you prefer keeping if we did not observe Daylight Saving Time? The Standard Time for your time zone or Daylight Saving Time?
