If fall break wasn’t restful enough and being over halfway through the semester is leading to increased fatigue, don’t forget to appreciate the extra hour that comes along with daylight savings time. Sunday at 2 a.m., the time will fall back to 1 a.m. and the U.S., with the exception of Arizona and Hawaii, will repeat the hour.
“Sleeping, definitely sleeping,” said NKU student Bethany Flannery when asked how she will be spending her extra hour. You can enjoy an extra hour of sleep during the fall semester or use that time to hang out with friends if you’re still awake late at night.
War Time
In 1918, President Franklin Roosevelt brought back the idea of daylight saving time (DST), which was introduced in 1916 when Germany needed to save energy for the war. Germany pushed their clocks forward, saving energy they were using on lighting.
“War Time” did exactly what Germany planned for it to do, but now for the United States. The U.S. was saving energy during the war and saving fuel for other war-related expenses. War Time lasted from February 1942 to September 1945.
War Time ended and many countries went back to standard time, but this opened the conversation of “how necessary is DST?”
The Uniform Time Act of 1966
World War II had begun and the country was under stress of resources again. The conversation of DST was brought back to the country’s attention, but only some regions in the U.S. were adapting to the idea.
Confusion spread among the states, affecting many different everyday things. The confusion amongst travel and commerce were two of the many reasons why the split nation was not working well together because of DST.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 went into effect by the U.S. Congress, to limit confusion among the states. The states had the option to exclude oneself from the act. Arizona and Hawaii were the only states to say they did not want to participate.
What is “time change?”
Since the Uniform Time Act, some changes have been made to DST, but not many. In 2005, the Energy Policy Act changed the time frame of DST,which before had no set dates, to the dates the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
Both changes happen at 2 a.m. The change in March makes the country “skip” forward an hour, which means you lose an hour of sleep. The change in November makes you “redo” or go back an hour, which means you gain an hour of sleep.