Daylight Savings Time takes effect 2 a.m. Sunday, when the U.S. turns their clocks back one hour.
Everyone has heard the phrase “spring forward and fall back” as a way to remember the seasonal time adjustments, but where does the tradition of daylight saving time come from.
Also everyone one in the United States will set their clocks back one hour on Sunday, November 7. The official time to do it is 2 a.m. when most people are sleeping, so most people will me the adjustment before going to sleep Saturday night.
Come March, we will do the same thing in reverse and lose one hour over night. The point of making the adjustment in March is to give everyone an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Then in autumn when the days are getting much shorter, we move our clocks back again.
Daylight saving time first hit the US in 1918, primarily as a way to conserve fuel that was needed for the war effort. Adjusting the clocks is still touted as an energy-saving exercise, but some people are skeptical of the claim. Agricultural communities, for example, have fought against changing the time, since their schedules are often dictated by the sun regardless of the time.
The biannually switches are also promoted as good times to check batteries in your home’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Safety has been used in arguments both for and against daylight saving time. Some say it helps to keep children from having to walk to school or wait for buses in pitch-black darkness, while others contend that the slight changes in sleeping patterns results in a sharp upshot in traffic accidents the Monday immediately following the time change.
What people are talking about.Story about daylight savings time 2010.