Daylight Saving Time; Over for Another Year
Helen's Weekly Feature

 

                           

This is my favourite weekend of the whole year. I absolutely love going to bed on Saturday night knowing that it really doesn’t matter what time I get up on Sunday morning because I have an extra hour. For me, it’s like a gift that lasts the full Sunday.

All day Sunday, with my clocks still on daylight saving time I say to myself, or anyone within earshot, “That’s not the real time. We’ve got an extra hour.”  Until I change my clocks, which I do at some point on Sunday evening, I feel as though I have an extra hour.

With this in mind, I decided to do a bit of investigating to see if I could come up with some interesting facts about daylight saving time. I have compiled them below, so the next time you find yourself at a dinner party or some other get-together where you might need to impress someone and you are without something to say, you might want to quote one of my interesting facts.

However, due to the timeliness of the topic, you may only be able to use the information on one of two weekends: my favourite weekend and my least favourite weekend (sometime in March).

 

Facts:

 

1. The ‘modern’ idea of giving us more light in the afternoons and less in the mornings was first introduced in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand scientist. However, many give credit to William Willet, an Englishman, who was also a keen golfer, and who hated having to cut his game short due to a lack of light in the summer evenings. He officially proposed his idea for daylight saving time in 1907.

2. Modern daylight saving time was introduced to reduce the usage of electricity, specifically incandescent lighting and heating and cooling systems. Research shows that it has a negligible effect.

3. The changing of the clock in fall has a measurable effect on car accidents. You would think that after an hour of extra sleep people would be more awake on the following Monday, but in fact, the accident rate actually increases. There are more accidents on that Monday and they believe it’s due to the fact that it is darker when many people are leaving work in the afternoon.

4. Daylight saving time also has negative effects on farming, evening entertainment and other activities involving the sun.

5. A one hour shift in time is customary but there is an island in Australia which shifts its clocks by only a half hour (Lord Howe Island). Also twenty minute and two hour shifts have been used in the past.

6. Beginning and end dates of daylight saving time are the reverse in the Southern Hemisphere.

7. Saskatchewan no longer alters its clocks for daylight saving time. Plus there is a small part of northern British Columbia that stays on standard time year round.

8. Some countries in northern South America, Africa and Asia have never adopted daylight saving time.

9. Economists predicted that a longer period of daylight saving time would be of great economic benefit. The longer daylight time induces people to shop.

10. It is recommended that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors at the same time as you change your clocks. This is for no other reason than to remind you that the batteries need changing regularly.

11. The changing of the clocks twice a year affects your natural sleep pattern. For some people it can take several weeks to adapt.

12. Now for some grammar: both daylight saving time and daylight savings time are correct. In Britain they avoid this problem and simply call it Summer Time.

 

There are countless more facts you could use in a conversation. If you want to find out more, visit the Wikipedia web site

 

Visit Last Week's Feature:

Feed the Food Bank!

Weekly Feature Index
(Includes all 2002 to date Weekly Features with descriptions)

Return to Top