When is Daylight Saving Time and why do we still turn clocks back?
Sunday marks the time of the year many of us hate — when we set the clocks back, cutting the evening hours short and making our after-work commute dark and depressing.
At 2 a.m. EST Nov. 4, Americans will set clocks back an hour to mark the end of Daylight Saving Time, which officially began on March 11 this year.
Why we turn clocks back
Founding father Ben Franklin was the first to develop the concept when he penned the essay “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light,” suggesting that people will save money on candle wax when they get up earlier, LiveScience reports.
But the idea didn’t take off until 1907 when William Willett introduced “British Summer Time,” also known as Daylight Saving Time, National Geographic reported. Like Franklin’s idea, Willett’s was focused on adding more morning hours during daylight.
Willett is Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s great-great grandfather, BBC News reported. In Coldplay’s hit song “Clocks,” there’s a hidden reference in the opening lyrics about Daylight Saving Time, saying “the lights go out and I can’t be saved.”
Willett’s idea to set the clocks backwards was first implemented by the German government, during World War I as a way to conserve energy by using less coal, National Geographic reported. Eventually, England, the U.S. and several other countries fighting the Germans implemented Daylight Saving Time.
But do we still need Daylight Saving Time?
Many people have criticized that Daylight Saving Time is unnecessary because it’s questionable whether or not the system actually saves on energy, according to National Geographic.
Two states and several territories don’t follow Daylight Saving Time, including Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Island.
This year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott passed a bill that would ban Daylight Saving Time in the Sunshine state, but it needs Congress to change federal legislation to go into effect, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
In 2017, a state representative in Maine proposed for the state of Maine, along with Massachusetts and New Hampshire, to leave Daylight Saving Time behind, The Weather Channel reports. Those in favor of the bill said early sunsets are bad for business and that changing the clocks doesn’t help save money in the New England area.
Others against Daylight Saving Time argue that that it’s also a safety hazard to alter your body clocks. Several recent studies have shown a spike in car accidents in the days following Daylight Saving Time changes, U.S. News and World reports.
Less than 40 percent of countries use Daylight Saving Time, according to Time and Date.
This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 1:23 PM with the headline "When is Daylight Saving Time and why do we still turn clocks back?."