Turn your clock back and get an extra hour of sleep!

Yes, it is that time of year again. Daylight Saving Time ends so we turn our clocks back one hour at 2am Sunday morning, November 3rd. Most people will change their clocks before they go to bed Saturday night.  This change puts us back on Standard Time.  The good news is that everyone can get an extra hour of sleep!

History of Daylight Savings Time: People often ask – what is Daylight Saving Time and why do we have it?  Daylight Saving Time (or summer time as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. During Daylight Saving Time, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer.

The reason many countries implement DST is to make better use of the daylight in the evenings.  Some believe that it could be linked to reducing the amount of road accidents and injuries. The extra hour of daylight in the evening is said to give children more social time with friends and family and can even boost the tourism industry because it increases the amount of outdoor activities. DST is also considered a means to save energy due to less artificial light needed during the evening hours.  Clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the autumn.

Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but modern DST was not formally proposed until 1895 when an entomologist from New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, presented a proposal for a two-hour daylight saving shift to the Wellington Philosophical Society.  It wasn’t until World War I, in 1916, that DST was adopted and implemented by several countries in Europe and the United States.  The United States, Canada and some other countries extended DST in 2007. The new start date is the second Sunday in March (previously the first Sunday in April) through to the first Sunday in November (previously the last Sunday in October).

If you would like to set your clock to the correct time, please click this link.

Now that you have an extra hour, what will you do with it?