Origins of Daylight Saving Time

Ever wondered why we lose an hour of sleep in the spring and gain it back in the fall? 

The reason we’ve been missing appointments and showing up way too early for events is because of daylight saving time (DST), a practice that's been around for over a century and has been juggling our clocks with the changing seasons. But its origins and impact are more complex than just a simple time shift. Let's take a quick dive into the history, benefits, drawbacks and ongoing debate surrounding this controversial practice.

How and when daylight saving time started

Ancient time

The practice of shifting our clocks back or forward isn’t a recent development, by any means! Civilizations have been adjusting their days to follow the daylight since at least as far back as the Roman Empire, who divided their days into 12 daylight “hours” that changed in length depending on the season. In the winter, their daylight hours would last for about 44 minutes each, while in the summer they would last almost twice as long. 

It was only in 14th century Europe that the hours became equal in length throughout the year and time began to stand a little more still — as in, “civil time” that was determined by civilian authorities. Most agrarian communities (communities that were centered around agriculture) still rose with the sun regardless of the civil time, but as technology advanced and whispers of the industrial revolution started arising, there was more and more need for a standardization of time across Europe so that railroads, communication networks and newspapers could run more efficiently.

Daylight saving is introduced by… an entomologist?

Yes. you read that right. An insect-enthusiast first proposed daylight saving time in 1895.

It’s a pretty neat story, actually. A New Zealand entomologist named George Hudson really, really loved studying insects and valued the time that his shift-work job gave him to study after the regular work hours ended. He found that the extra few hours of daylight benefited his work immensely, and he submitted a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society outlining how a two-hour daylight-saving shift could benefit workers of all kinds. 

Though Hudson’s paper was submitted in 1895, DST was still yet to be properly enacted anywhere. However, more and more people were having the same idea. 

In 1907, avid golfer and English outdoorsman William Willett thought of shifting the daylight hours when he noticed how many people were sleeping through the summer morning daylight. He also really disliked having his rounds of golf cut short when it got dark and, like anyone who loves an outdoor sport, started to wonder how he could get more time into the day to be out in the sunshine. Willett proposed the idea of a daylight saving shift to parliament in 1909, but nothing came of it. 

Though nothing was happening to start a bona-fide daylight saving time in either New Zealand or the United Kingdom, two small towns in the province of Ontario, Canada, officially enacted DST in 1908 and 1911. From there, a slew of nations started hopping on the daylight saving train, especially with the arrival of global conflict. 

DST in WWI

Fast forward to World War I, where countries like Germany and Austria-Hungary adopted DST in 1916 to conserve energy during wartime. The logic was simple: less reliance on artificial lighting meant less coal burned, which freed up resources for the war effort. The United Kingdom adopted the practice that same year, Russia started the year after that and the United States started in 1918. 

While the practice ended in most of the nations after the war, the energy-saving argument remained a key proponent for DST's continued use in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France. It was brought back into the spotlight in World War II, and in 1966 the United States made it an official, standardized practice in the nation, solidifying its use outside of wartime.

In the 1970s, the oil crisis brought DST back into the spotlight in Europe, where it’s been brought in and out of effect ever since. 

Pros and cons of daylight saving time

Daylight saving time has had mixed reviews for as long as the idea has been around. 

It used to save energy

Back when DST was first introduced, it was done so under the reasoning that more daylight meant less energy was used up for lighting. This was especially important during wartime in the early 20th century, when resources for lighting could instead be used on the war effort.

Nowadays, however, we use so much more energy around-the-clock that an hour here and there doesn't actually make all that much of a difference. The benefit, energy-wise, is negligible today. 

There’s more sunlight

Another large advantage of DST is that more hours of sunlight are added to the afternoon in summer, allowing people to take advantage of the warmer weather and sunshine. Retailers tout the benefits of longer evenings for shopping, while industries like tourism argue it boosts their activity during peak season. Studies also state that road safety increases in daylight hours and that fewer accidents happen during DST than in standard time — even robberies decrease by about 7% after DST starts!

The drawback, though, is that when DST ends in the colder months, the early darkness can induce mood swings, disrupt circadian rhythm and cause sleep irregularities. It gets even more complicated at extreme latitudes where the sun could set as early as 3:30 p.m. in the winter outside of DST, which has been linked to seasonal depression and other mental health issues. 

It can be unnecessary 

If, say, you worked in an office in the northern regions of Washington State and are counting on the long summer days to get the most out of your afternoons, then DST is sure to be a benefit for you and the people in your area. You get more Vitamin D, you use less artificial light and you tend to go outside more often. What’s not to love?

However, the closer you get to the equator, the less variation in sunlight hours you get throughout the year and the less you’d need to rely on clocks changing all the time. In the United States, places like Hawaii, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa have opted out of DST completely, citing that since their sunrise and sunsets vary so little throughout the year, the need to shift their clocks back and forth twice a year is unnecessary and, frankly, more confusing than anything.  

DST is unnecessary in some industries, too. Some of the largest opponents to DST are farmers and those in the agricultural community, since farming revolves around the sun, not the clocks. Introducing time changes does nothing but create confusion, despite many believing that DST was invented for the benefit of the farmers. 

It’s confusing as heck

The debate over DST is further complicated by its regional variations. While the United States and Europe have (mostly) standardized practices, other countries like China and Brazil have opted out entirely. This patchwork approach creates confusion for travelers and businesses operating across borders. Even within the United States, DST varies state by state and, as such, the “borders” of time are anything but neat and tidy.

Thank goodness our smartphones adjust to DST automatically, otherwise we’d have so much more chaos than we do already!

The future of DST

In 2023, California passed a bill to permanently adopt DST nationwide, pending federal approval. Nothing concrete has been decided one way or another, but these efforts highlight the growing public discontent and the possibility of a future without seasonal time changes.

So, where does this leave us? The future of DST remains uncertain. While the energy-saving argument has waned, the debate over its impact on health, safety and economic benefits continues. As individual states and countries weigh the pros and cons, one thing is clear: the conversation about springing forward and falling back is far from over. Whether we move the sunshine around our workday or move our workday around the sunshine, chances are that we’ll keep springing forward and falling back for the foreseeable future, at least.

Only time will tell.

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Featured photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash