Daylight Savings Time

"Daylight Savings Time", "Daylight Saving Time", or abbreviated: " (DST)", is the practice of setting clocks forward one hour from standard time for the summer months, and back one hour for the winter months (vise-versa for the Southern Hemisphere). ^[1]

Changing the clocks does not create extra daylight but instead shifts the time of sunrise and sunsets. This time change can cause disruptions to our to our body clock, otherwise known as the circadian rhythm.^[2]

Many sources erroneously credit American inventor Benjamin Franklin for first suggesting seasonal time change in a letter written in 1784. In a satirical letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris, entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light,” Franklin did suggest that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning. However, it did not involve altering the time displayed by clocks (The integral part of today's Daylight "Saving" Time).

Daylight Savings Time is currently used in over 70 countries worldwide and affects over one billion people every year. The biannual dates for shifting the clocks vary from one country to another. ^[3]

Daylight Savings Time in the United States of America[edit]

Hawaii is the only US state that does not use DST at all.

None of the US Territories observe DST. This includes [[American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, the US Minor Outlying Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and the US Virgin Islands.

Arizona, (with some exceptions such as the Navajo reservation), does not use DST. The 1967 DST trial in Arizona provoked so many negative reactions that DST was never again used there. People in Arizona, including many businesses, farming communities, and parents, preferred to remain on Mountain Standard Time throughout the year claiming that DST produced no benefits for them.

All other 48 states who have not exempted themselves currently use DST as allowed in |15 USC Chapter 6, Subchapter Ix: Standard Time. Any state may exempt itself from DST at any time:

"(1) any State that lies entirely within one time zone may by law exempt itself from the provisions of this subsection providing for the advancement of time, but only if that law provides that the entire State
(including all  political subdivisions thereof) shall observe the standard time otherwise applicable during that period, and (2) any State with parts thereof in more than one time zone may by law exempt either 
the entire State as provided in (1) or may exempt the entire area of the State lying within any time zone."
-260a (a) of the Universal Time Act (Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX) [4][5]

States That Want to Remove DST by Permanently Observing DST All-year-round[edit]

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed regulations for permanent DST.^[6]

Note: For these bills to become law, the US Congress must first pass a federal law that would allow states to observe DST year-round. This has not happened yet. The current law only allows states to opt out of DST, but not to follow it year-round.

-From TimeandDate.com, Daylight Saving Time in the USA ^[26]

See Also[edit]

• Summer Solstice
• Fall Equinox
• Winter Solstice
• Spring Equinox
• Benjamin Franklin

External Links[edit]

DST in the United States of America

References[edit]