Trazee In-Depth: Daylight Savings Time

Every year, 40 percent of the world springs forward and falls back, but why? Daylight savings time has been a seasonal changing of the clocks, first started in 1908 in Canada, when residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, turned clocks back one hour. The ignition of the first daylight savings is often attributed to Germany eight years later, but, in actuality, it was in a small town in Canada. The idea was to save energy, elongate working hours during the harvest season and countless other horticultural excuses.

Daylight savings time’s popularity caught on across Canadian provinces over the next few years and was officially established in Germany in 1916 to preserve energy during the war effort. Clocks in the German Empire and Austria were turned ahead one hour in April, spring 1916, allowing the sun to set later by German time. Within the month, France, The United Kingdom and various European countries began to follow suit. Once World War I ended, participating countries did away with daylight savings and went back to business as usual, until WWII.

This continued year by year, with more countries following daylight savings time. The United States enacted an all-new legislator in 1986.

The pros and cons of daylight savings time vary by person and region, but, overall, it seems the added hour of natural daylight in the spring is beneficial to everyone from the tourism industry to residents. The later sunset allows travelers to spend more time out and about at restaurants, shopping and socializing. When visitors and residents are out spending money and traveling around town, businesses stay open later and everyone profits. To the opposite point, the sun setting early in winter leaves less ambition for society to get out and about.

Another con of daylight savings is it doesn’t actually save energy. The fact is, in our modern society between our electronics, air conditioning, heaters, lights and all of our many screens, we use the same amount of energy with or without daylight savings.

In one study in 2006, Indiana residents actually used more energy after instating daylight savings time. Stay in and hide from the dark and the cold watching TV, and movies and you light up the house.

Some people are so influenced by daylight savings time in winter, they feel seasonal affective disorder, and are depressed and lethargic with the lack of natural light. In addition to attributing to illness and decreased productivity, daylight savings costs more than we imagine.

With the pros of natural sunlight and later sunsets in the springtime and cons of seasonal depression and excess energy use in the winter, nevertheless daylight savings time has persisted in at least 70 countries, but for how much longer?

Florida Sen. Greg Steube recently filed a bill to revoke daylight savings time. So far Hawai’i and Arizona are the only U.S. states to not follow daylight savings, but if Florida passes, they will join that list.

Following daylight savings time each year has become ingrained in our lives, and it seems radical to consider doing away with it. Whether out of habit and convenience or necessity, daylight savings time seems to still be debatable.