Daylight Saving Time

Daylight saving time (DST; also summer time in British English Terminology) is the practice of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist.

Daylight saving time in the United States was first observed in 1918. Most areas of the United States currently observe daylight saving time, with the exceptions being the states of Arizona and Hawaii along with the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. From 1987 to 2006, daylight saving time in the United States began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. The time is adjusted at 2:00 AM (0200) local time.

Since 2007, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November, with all time changes taking place at 2:00 AM (0200) local time. Under Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy is required to study the impact of 2007's DST extension no later than nine months after the change took effect. Congress has retained the right to revert to the DST schedule set in 1986. One potential issue is that some northern regions on the western edges of time zones are, for the first time since the 1974-75 "almost year round" DST experiment, experiencing sunrise times that occur later than 8:00 AM (0800).

Benefits of DST

• enables outdoor activities to have natural sunlught
• reduces need for artificial light (and the consumption of electricity) in the evening
• retailers, including sporting goods makers, generate more sales as people have the ability to engage in outdoor activities
• the U.S. Department of Transportation reported a 0.7% reduction in traffic fatalities during DST - in the American Journal of Public Health 1985-92–95.

• There is also evidence to suggest that turning our clocks back by 1-hour can help the heart. In Stephanie Nano’s article “ Turning Back the Clocks Can Help Your Heart," from the Associated Press, October 30, 2008, "Swedish researchers discovered by keeping records for over 20 years, that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks were set back an hour, possibly because people got an extra hour of sleep.”