Technically, this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Research shows that as far back as 1784, Benjamin Franklin, then ambassador to Paris suggested the idea of DST in a satirical essay but not much came of it until 1908 when it was unofficially used in Canada — in what is now Thunder Bay, ON (it used to be Fort William and Port Arthur).
 
Officially, Germany was the first country to implement it as a war measure in 1916. The US and England followed shortly. A fun fact, William Willett, a British golf lover who led the world’s first big DST campaign only to have it shut down by farmers, is the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin. Willet died a year before seeing DST widely implemented. Coincidentally, Coldplay has a song called “Daylight” and “Clocks. The Queen of England’s staff spends more than 50 hours adjusting 1,000 clocks across her residences, according to The Telegraph.

Daylight saving time marks a shift into the winter season where our mornings will be brighter, but by evening, darkness will roll around a lot earlier in the day.

The end of Daylight Saving Time and the ushering in of winter could tamper with our internal clocks. That is because some of us may have trouble adjusting to the shorter amount of natural light we’ll be getting in our days.  “We’re creatures that need light in order to reset our internal clock. It’s that clock that really governs things like when you’re hungry, when you feel alert, when you start to feel sleepy, the timing of the sleep stages, our mood and our hormones,” according to Dr. Colleen Carney, an author and Ryerson University professor who runs a sleep lab in Toronto.

“When we have a shrinking of light this time of the year, and throughout the winter, we have a whole host of problems that can come along with it,” she stated.

Our bodies are thrown off when the amount of light that usually helps regulate our systems starts dwindling down. Some people deal with headaches, they could be cranky, have decreased energy or they’ll notice changes in their eating or sleeping habits. It is important to realize that just the one hour change can effect each individual differently.  Just as time change from travel gives us jet lag, one hour change can alter our adaptation to our daily lives.

Interestingly enough, Russia dropped two of its 11 time zones in 2010, then abolished DST a year later. It’s now one of a few places in the world that stays on summer hours all year. Argentina, Iceland, Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus also abide by year-round summer hours. 

So, why does daylight saving time happen at 2 a.m.? According to the website Live Science, it’s considered to be the least disruptive time of day — and it allows for turning back the clocks without changing the date to “yesterday.” When the United States implemented daylight saving time during World War I the goal was simply to minimize coal consumption. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to keep the change permanent but Congress repealed his plan, even overriding a presidential veto.

Until 1966, in the United States each state and other governments could arbitrarily start and end day light saving time. At one point, it was possible to travel through seven time changes on a short train ride from Ohio to West Virginia. 

Wherever you are traveling in the world or just make a few phone calls, in the next few week or so, realize that some countries do adjust their time based on a season while many others do not, such as some in Asia and Africa.  Remember to check your sources to see what time it is so you aren’t late for your meeting, flight or waking someone up too early!