As you may have noticed, or maybe not, all clocks have shifted back one hour and we all gained an hour of sleep. How is this possible? Is this compensation for all of the midterm exams recently? Did we travel back in time? The answer is unfortunately no, to all of those questions.
Daylight savings is a practice that occurs in the middle of the year. Its main purpose is to extend the after-work/school during the summer so more people can enjoy the sun while it’s still shining. Then, during the winter, the times reset back to normal.
On November 5, we experienced that change at 2 A.M. Instead of regularly moving throughout the morning, all of our electronic clocks automatically adjusted it back to 1 A.M. The next time we re-enter daylight savings and lose an hour of sleep will be on March 10.
However, moving beyond the United States, depending on where you reside, you may find varied results. For example, in some parts of Australia, they employ daylight savings in October and end it in April. Why are they choosing to be different? This is because of the seasonal differences in opposing hemispheres. As we’re experiencing fall, Australia, among many other countries, is experiencing Spring.
Unbeknownst to many, it’s not a required practice in all countries and is a minority in many countries globally.
From what we now know, the first person to suggest the idea of daylight savings, or rather the pure concept of it, was Benjamin Franklin. But the daylight savings practice we all know and (probably) love is accredited to George Hudson in the late 19th century.
Funnily enough, one of the reasons that George Hudson was motivated to change it was because of his hobby of hunting bugs. So, in his proposed idea, he would be able to further pursue his personal interest in ants for a longer time in the day.
