Turning Back Time: DST Ends
Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend, meaning you’ll get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning.
Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday. Make sure to turn back all clocks one hour.
Daylight Saving Time has been used in the United States and even many European countries since World War I when it was meant to conserve fuel needed to produce power. Today, the theory behind it is that it gives us more daylight in the summer months when people can enjoy outdoor activities.
According to the interactive online museum WebExhibits, however, Daylight Saving Time has had an interesting history and unexpected impacts of many events including:
- Indiana has long been a hotbed of Daylight Saving Time controversy. Historically, the state’s two western corners, which fall in the Central Time Zone, observed Daylight Saving Time while the remainder of the state, in the Eastern Time zone, followed year-round Standard Time. An additional complication was that five southeastern counties near Cincinnati and Louisville unofficially observed Daylight Saving Time to keep in sync with those cities. Because of the longstanding feuds over Daylight Saving Time, Indiana politicians often treated the subject gingerly. In April 2005, Indiana legislators passed a law that implemented Daylight Saving Time statewide beginning on April 2, 2006.
- Following the 1973 oil embargo, Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months rather than the normal 6 months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that it saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day. Likewise, in 1986, Daylight Saving Time moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October. Adding the entire month of April is estimated to save the U.S. about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.
- During the Vietnam War, a man argued his birth had been recorded in standard time, not Daylight Saving Time, when he was born in Delaware. He said under standard time he was technically born on the previous day, a day which had a much higher draft lottery number, and he successfully avoided going to war.
- Many have proposed that shifting the end of daylight saving time until after Election Day would increase voter turnout because people would be more likely to go to polls when it’s light out.
- Amish communities in the United States and Canada are divided about whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. Although the Amish are generally known for leading simple lives without modern conveniences, practices vary from community to community. In one county in Ohio, approximately 10 of the 90 Amish church districts opt out of Daylight Saving Time (known as “fast time” or “English time,”) preferring to observe what they term “slow time.”