Daylight Saving Time Trivia

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. This past weekend most of us here in the United States experienced the ‘spring forward’ that hails the beginning of daylight saving time. In honor of that event I thought I’d share a little bit of trivia associated with the event.

 

  • Though often credited as the inventor of DST, Benjamin did not seriously propose its implementation. It was actually a tongue-in-cheek proposal as part of a satirical essay he wrote that was published in Paris where he was living at the time. The true person behind the drive to implement DST was George Hudson a British-born New Zealand entomologist who did shift work and wanted more after hours daylight time to collect insects. He first made a formal proposal on the subject in 1893 to the Wellington Philosophical Society.
  • Many people believe DST was implemented primarily to benefit agricultural interests. This is not only untrue, but the agricultural industry actively opposed DST when it was implemented in the US. They’re thinking is that livestock and crops don’t care what manmade clocks say, they pay attention to their own internal clocks and implementing time changes can actually be disruptive. For instance cows expect to be milked at the same time every day regardless of what time the clock displays.
  • The first country to adopt DST was Germany. They officially adopted it in 1916 as a way to conserve coal during WWI.
  • In the US individual states have the power to decide whether or not to observe DST. Hawaii and the majority of Arizona do not. Prior to 2006 Indiana also did not.
  • DST has been shown to have both negative and positive effects.

    Negative:

    • According to some studies DST can lead to an increase in traffic accidents due to people’s systems not adjusting quickly to the new time.
    • Other studies have found an increase in heart attacks and strokes following the time change which can tie to increased stress levels and a heightened risk of depression because of the disruption of circadian rhythms.

  Positive:

    • The extra hour of daylight during prime evening time is credited with a decrease in energy usage. HOWEVER, recent studies have shown that these benefits may not be as great as previously thought and may in fact have an actual negative impact. That extra hour will only lead to a decrease in energy usage if we go outside to take advantage of the extra hour of premium time sunlight.
    • DST is also credited with increased economic productivity during the later daylight hour.
    • Some studies show DST has a positive effect on health due to increased activity levels in the later daylight hour.
  • While most people say ‘daylight savings time’ the correct term is ‘daylight saving time’ (singular, not plural). And yes, it’s not capitalized. But the plural version has become so common in everyday usage that is has become acceptable as a conversational variant.

So what do you think? Did any of these bits of trivia surprise you? How do you feel about daylight saving time – a fan or not so much?
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Winnie Griggs is the author of Historical (and occasionally Contemporary) romances that focus on Small Towns, Big Hearts, Amazing Grace. She is also a list maker, a lover of dragonflies and holds an advanced degree in the art of procrastination.
Three of Winnie’s books have been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and one of those nominations resulted in a win.
Winnie loves to hear from readers. You can connect with her on facebook at www.facebook.com/WinnieGriggs.Author or email her at winnie@winniegriggs.com.

60 thoughts on “Daylight Saving Time Trivia”

  2. I am married to a farmer and HATE it – the livestock still need taken care of no matter what the clock says and wish Indiana would go back to not changing!! I feel tired everyday for about a month afterward – I went to bed early last night but didn’t help me in getting up and coming in to work this morning!

  3. welcome today. this was an interesting post. I didnt know that Germany was the first to use DST I found your facts very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I neither hate it or like it. It is what it is and we just have to adjust. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

  4. Thanks for the history of DST. It was very interesting. I prefer DST, even though I don’t care for it not getting light until almost 8:00 right now. It will start getting light earlier. I do love that it stays light later in the day.

  6. I love DLS time myself because of the extra hour in the evening. It gives me more time in the evening to get out and take a walk. More time to get the lawn mowed.

  7. I don’t really care for daylight saving time. I need it DARK so I can sleep, but since I don’t go to bed til 11ish, it’s not as bad as when I worked out of the house. I close my blinds early so I can “trick” my body into making that down time. I started that when I was working out of the house and have just kept it up. I just want them to set the time and forget it, and I don’t care where they set it! I just want us to quit going back and forth.

  8. I am NOT a fan of DST. It turns one’s life around for a week or two. Since I am retired it really shouldn’t matter, or most people would say. However, it has always been a negative factor for me.

  9. I don’t care for it. I do come from a farming background though. That daylight comes later in the day when it’s hotter. It’s better to work outside in the early morning.

  10. Good morning , I enjoyed reading these post, thank you. Well it takes me a little while to adjust to the time change, I just hope that one day they do stop changing the times, until then, we just have to go along with it. Have a great day and a great week.

  12. I can see the pros and cons for both standard and daylight savings time. I wish it could be left one way or the other. I don’t like changing back and forth, it is disrupting.

  14. Thanks for the history on DST. I liked it better when it was six months of each. Now it seems like we just fell back and we are already springing forward. As much as I don’t like getting up when it’s still dark on DST, the idea of it being bright at 3am standard time doesn’t appeal to me either. We live far enough north that it is daylight by 4am DST part of May into July. If we stay on DST all year the sun wouldn’t come up ‘til 8:40am in December. Pros and cons for both. We pretty much live by the sun anyway unless we have to go to town or do something on-line.

  16. Loved the trivia found it interesting. It is okay but I walk in the morning and in Florida it is still dark at 7 AM.

  18. I absolutely HATE daylight saving time. I really hope we get rid of it one of these days. They are talking about it in the EU, but they sure take their own sweet time.

  19. LOL Well, there seems to be a lot of hate of DST. I’m surprised it still exists. I’ve yet to meet a person that doesn’t complain about it each time we change. With so many of us complaining, why hasn’t it stopped? Now, THAT is very strange to me. Not the history, but why it still exists.

  21. I was surprised DST went back as far as it did. I am not a fan. Leave things at standard time and stop messing around with people’s schedules. Your point about farmers is spot on. The time change actually robs the farmer of quality time in the evening since he needs to get up earlier, by the clock, to milk the cows, so needs to go to bed earlier to get enough sleep. Cows are on their own schedule.
    Overall, I think in some ways it is a rather selfish system. We change the time to give adults more time to play in the evening, while we think nothing of having children standing out in the dark waiting for their school bus. In addition, it has been shown that school should start later because children need more morning hours for sleep.

  22. I like DST, but the adjustment from one to the other seems to bother me for a few days now more than it did when I was younger. :/ Guess that just shows me that “old(er) age” is creeping up on me. Haha!
    I’m a word person, so it bugs me to read daylight savingS time. I didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to be capitalized. I’m glad to learn that tidbit. 🙂

  23. I’ve lived in SW AZ for almost 30 years. I like not having to change all the clocks. It seems every piece of equipment, every gadget, every whatever has a clock. The time it would take to adjust all of them would be monumental. As it stands, I have to remind my phone that it doesn’t need to change for DST.

  24. I hate Daylight Savings Time. I agree with the animals that time should be measured by the natural rhythm and not an artificial attempt at stretching the day. During World War 2 some places tried shifting the day 2-hours. I just consider it a silly idea that started as a joke and then was built upon by those without humor.

  27. DST, I’m from Indiana also and I DO NOT LIKE IT either!! At one time they used the excuse that the farmers needed the extra light to farm, however: they now have those AWSOME big lights on their machinery. So, that’s no longer a excuse. I am messed up for a long time before my body & my head goes a hour forward.
    Still hope they STOP this crazy time chance. When I worked the truckers that delivered our products to other states that didn’t chance their time had a hard time keeping their schedules. What a mess for others beside ourselves!!!!

  28. I understand the reasoning behind moving the time to give more daylight in the evenings. Medical information has shown that more people have heart attacks due to the change in time. I do not like the effect it has on my body. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

  30. I dislike it personally because it messes up my sleep cycle. Thanks to menopause I already have sleep issues and so DST just ends up making a difficult problem worse.

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