How Day Light Saving Benefits Our Day to Day

When daylight saving comes to mind most people’s immediate thoughts are “Yes! An hour longer today!”, “more sunlight!”, or “now it is dark when I wake up!” But the truth is there are many more reasons why daylight savings is good for our day to day life. The beginning of daylight saving time is still a mystery to many which is why we are here to give you the facts!

The idea to change the clocks stemmed from an idea that was presented by Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was not fond of waking up from the sunlight and put together a satirical essay stating that by waking up at dawn, American’s could save the modern-day equivalent of $200 million by using sunlight instead of candles.

Years later an English man named William Willett lead the first campaign to begin daylight saving time. He was inspired to do so after itching for more hours of sunlight to ride his horse. Although he spent a large portion of his personal fortune trying to persuade the government, he passed away before day light saving was implemented. Finally, after World War I William’s dream came true. Although it was not his own country, Germany was the first to implement day light saving as a way to conserve energy. Followed by the United States in March of 1918.

When the idea first came to be the farmers were outraged thinking it would disrupt their crops yet it actually gives them more sunlight during half of the year. It was not till 1966 that farmers recognized the positive aspects of day light saving. It gives their produce an extra hour to flourish and more time in the day for them to work, meaning they can also be paid more. The extra hour also gives farmers the opportunity to cut down on their electrical use, benefiting the planet.

Aside from the extra hour being beneficial to farmers, longer evenings motivates people to get out of the house. The extra hour is commonly used for outdoor activities. As well, many touristy cities benefit from the sunlight giving tourists more time to seize the day. The greatest perk of the extra hour in the day is the extra light! Light = safety. Studies have shown a 7% decrease in robberies during the spring day light saving shift.

One big mistake that many make when referencing the time change is making “saving” plural. However, the word “saving” refers to the singular saving of one hour of daylight.

Overall day light saving can be an adjustment at first but as the days go on you get a hang of the change in the sky and find ways to work your day in the new hours.