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Daylight Savings Time (DST) is set to begin on Sunday, March 11, 2018, at 2:00 A.M. The clock will officially move forward one hour at that time, which is also known as “Spring Forward.” Not every state in the US practices DST. For instance, Arizona and Hawaii refuse to change their clocks. Both Massachusetts and Maine have considered getting off DST, but haven’t scrapped the whole thing quite yet.
Every spring at this time, we lose one hour of sleep to Daylight Savings Time and the days become longer. DST has been a subject of controversy over the years but has continued to be a mainstay throughout the world. Internationally, 70 nations practice Daylight Saving Time. But that’s fewer than 40% of all the countries in the world. China and Japan, do not practice DST.
Daylight Savings Time in 2018
Daylight Savings in USA: 2:00 A.M.
Daylight Savings in Arizona: No Daylight Savings Time
Daylight Savings in Canada: 2:00 A.M.
Daylight Savings in UK: March 25, 1:00 A.M.
Daylight Savings in Brazil: February 18, 12:00 A.M.
Daylight Savings Time was created in order to make better use of daylight by extending the length of the day, while also attempting to conserve energy. The initial idea was proposed by Benjamin Franklin as more of a joke to help save candles by getting people to wake up earlier in his essay, “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.”
The idea of Daylight Savings was first used in Canada in 1908. Port Arthur, or modern day Thunder Bay, was the first location to implement DST. It became extremely popular and quickly spread throughout Canada and the world.
Germany became the first country to introduce Daylight Savings Time on April 30, 1916, when clocks were moved forward one hour. Many other countries followed suit, as the plan was to save fuel during World War I. Although some countries went back to the old time standard after WWI, DST became a worldwide norm around World War II.
The U.S. offers an act where any state can opt out of Daylight Savings Time. The only two states that have decided to opt out are Hawaii and Arizona. DST now always begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November after President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
A study published back in 2015 showed that daily incidents of robbery actually dropped by seven percent following the start of DST in the spring. Daylight Savings Time has also been found to decrease the number of heart attacks, as well as reducing energy usage.
