Annoying Daylight Savings Time

According to several sources, Daylight Savings Time was proposed by a New Zealand scientist, George Vernon Hudson in 1895. He wanted a two hour shift so that he had more time to devote to catching bugs. So the first inkling of modern time change was to serve one person?

The first area to use DST was apparently Port Arthur, Ontario, or more commonly known as Thunder Bay. They set their clocks forward on July 1, 1908, and a few other communities followed suit. One might be able to understand that considering how far north they lay, but then again, maybe not.

The first countries to use DST were Germany and Austria, turning their clocks ahead on April 30, 1916. Yes, during WWI, and it was to save fuel for the war effort. The rest of Europe soon followed, but when the war was over they went back to the old standard time. WWII brought it back again.

During World War I, the United States went to “Fast Time” in 1918 but then repealed it. Then in 1942, during World War II, President Roosevelt brought it back as year-round daylight savings time or more commonly “War Time” in four zones: Eastern War Time, Central War Time, Mountain War Time and Pacific War Time. When the war ended the same zones were changed to “Peace Time”.

For 21 years there was no rules governing time zones until in 1966 the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was enacted. It gave states the right to opt out which both Arizona and Hawaii did. Did you know that during the 1973 oil embargo we had year round DST from January 1974-April 1975?

Today, 21 states want to go to DST year round but it will take an act of Congress to do that. Not sure what the hold-up is since nearly 70% of people in the United States see no reason for the time change. Congress seems to have problems taking care of major issues; this whole debate is more like a fly in the house, annoying but not a do or die situation.

But is it really? Guess what increases at the start of DST: Car accidents, workplace injuries, miscarriages, suicide and heart attacks, not to mention depression when DST ends due to the early darkness.

Having raised children, I’ll go out on a limb here and state that school work, sleep patterns, attention span, behavior (and not in a good way) all are affected by the time change in the spring and the fall. As a personal observation, I am not necessarily a nice person on either end of the clock change and as I get older, it takes me longer to adjust.

To approximately 200 million in the United States, changing time twice a year doesn’t make sense. Most would probably not care if it went to year round DST or year round Standard time, though the outdoor sports and tourism sectors would favor more sunlight at night, or Daylight Savings Time year round.

Let’s just suggest that instead of asking a ‘bug collector’ what he would like, maybe our legislators should listen to their constituents.