Daylight saving time ambled in on Sunday as the clock struck 2 a.m., reversing time. This practice, a tradition for most of the U.S. in the recent and across parts of the last century, leaves questions for many on its primary purpose: saving energy.
Though there’s not a lot of research on the topic, the existing literature includes a mix of studies with some showing energy use went up with the practice. One 2008 study looked at the state of Indiana, “Does delight saving time save energy? Evidence from a natural experiment in Indiana,” and it showed an increase in energy demand for residents. A 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that the U.S. would save 0.5% a day in electricity with an extended Daylight Saving Time by way of extending DST by four weeks than it had been historically. Still, many debate any savings at all with the increased intensity on things like air conditioning use in the evening hours, along with other changes in behavior due to the time change.
Additionally, some call for an end to the practice as evidence exists of an increase in chaos, including upticks in heart attacks and car accidents, along with sleep loss.
Those topics took centerstage in early 2022 as the U.S. Senate voted to end the practice altogether. That move, as we’ll see, has been counterintuitive to the previous thought lines, at least recently, on DST. For reference, the House still needs to pass the measure, and the law would still need to be signed by President Joe Biden.
Daylight saving time in history
No, Ben Franklin didn’t invent daylight saving time. But he is credited with the observation of the practice in 1784–noting that if people were to rise earlier (not sleep when the sun was out), then they would burn fewer candles in the evening hours.
But it wasn’t until over a century later that the suggestion (made by William Willett in 1907) to turn clocks forward in the summer months to avoid wasting daylight was conferred. Nothing would come of the suggestion then.
During WWI, the Germans, looking to reduce electrical lighting use and preserve coal for its war efforts, instituted the practice of DST. From there, some 31 nations took on DST policies during the war. Following the war, the effort was repealed at a global level.
Again, in WWII, 52 nations took on the practice for the same reasons. But three years after the war ended, the practice of shifting the clocks was repealed.
The first DST law hit the books in the mid-1960s with the Uniform Time Act of 1966 being signed into law. With this legislation, clocks shifted ahead on the last Sunday in April to fall back on the last Sunday in October. Then during the oil embargo in the 1970s, the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act brought a year-round DST for fifteen months.
In the mid-1980s, for the purposes of energy conservation, the DST start date moved forward three weeks.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005, implemented in 2007, starts DST three weeks early–begins the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November, as we all just experienced.
Now, DST’s future, once again, hangs in the balance.
