Did you know that a majority of the world does not practice Daylight Savings Time? Here in the U.S. we have a couple of states that have opted out, but entire countries that tried it, and have since abandoned it. I don’t complain about the practice of adjusting the clocks by one hour in the fall. Spring, however, is a different story.
Last weekend I had several people ask me “why are we doing this again?” I decided to look into it; after all it messes up clocks, disrupts travel, and makes you want to crawl under the covers at 6pm.
The answer initially was reportedly to reduce the usage of incandescent lighting. That was in the early days of electricity. Things have changed a lot since then, and the most recent studies show no energy usage advantage to springing ahead or falling back.
Then there’s the economic benefit. Retailers and other who rely on people shopping and being outdoors later like DST. There are other businesses negatively impacted including farming and outdoor theaters.
There’s safety. One study shows changing the clocks saves lives on the highway, reducing accidents by 1.2% and that includes a 5% reduction in fatal pedestrian accidents. But, before you get too excited about that, consider another study that shows the Monday after the switch to DLS, springing ahead, workers sleep an average of 40 minutes less and are injured more often and more severely on the job.
So, why are we doing this again? I’m still not sure. I guess I’ll use that extra hour to sleep on it.
