Daylight Savings Time Starts Sunday

I know what you're thinking because we're all thinking ... "Dang it, one hour less sleep". Here I was super excited about the weekend and then it hit me... Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend... BOOOOOO! This revelation of course provoked thought... What is daylight savings time? Why do we have it? Who started it and when did it start? I found the answers to that and more questions on the time and date site. Enjoy reading this because I'm pretty sure you're not going to enjoy losing one hour of sleep this Sunday.

1.What Is Daylight Saving Time?

DST is a seasonal time change measure where clocks are set ahead of standard time during part of the year, usually by one hour. As DST starts, the Sun rises and sets later, on the clock, than the day before.

Today, about 40% of countries worldwide use it to make better use of daylight and to conserve energy.

2. Who Invented DST?

If you think Daylight Saving Time is a good idea, thank New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson and British builder William Willett. In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, proposing a 2-hour shift forward in October and a 2-hour shift back in March. There was interest in the idea, but it was never followed through.

In 1905, independently from Hudson, British builder William Willett suggested setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on each of the four Sundays in September, a total of eight time switches per year.

3. First Daylight Saving Bill

Willett’s Daylight Saving plan caught the attention of the British Member of Parliament Robert Pearce who introduced a bill to the House of Commons in February 1908. The first Daylight Saving Bill was drafted in 1909, presented to Parliament several times and examined by a select committee. However, the idea was opposed by many, especially farmers, so the bill was never made into a law.

Willett died in 1915, the year before the United Kingdom started using DST in May 1916. It is not known if he was aware that his idea had become a reality seven years prior to his death in a small town in Ontario.