Here are the Eye Opening facts you need to know about Daylight Savings Time before you spring forward!!

Get ready to “spring forward” as people in North America lose an hour of sleep in the early morning! Learn more about DST’s origins and interesting facts related to it here. – Brought to you by PartsAvatar Canada.

Daylight savings time system is followed in mostly North American and European countries. But why are we bound to it? Who disrupted our daily life for one day or two? Read the facts and find your answer!

Modern Time was invented in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians were the first or one of the first ancient civilizations to divide a day into sections, so they could tell what time it was. They divided the day into two 10 hour segments. They then added one hour at each end of the 10 hours, one for dawn and one for the twilight. Thus, they created 24 hour standard system.

But the credit of division of an hour goes to the Babylonians. They used sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system which was derived from their predecessors- the Sumerians who used it in 3500 B.C.

Later ancient Greco- Egyptian mathematician Claudius Ptolemy divided the hour further into seconds. However it was until 16^th century that mechanical clocks were invented and modern timekeeping was born.

Ancient Romans practised DST!

Ancient Romans were familiar with hours and minutes but not with seconds. They did not fix their schedules to the clock the way we do today, but they did adjust their schedules according to the sun.

During summers, they used to divide daylight into twelve hours regardless of daytime, so that each daylight hour was longer during summer. Unlike Egyptians who used Shadow clocks to trace time, the ancient Romans used Water clocks.

To adjust with DST, Romans would use water clocks of different amounts for different months of year.

Benjamin Franklin gave the Idea of DST

In 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to the editor of journal of Paris. He outlined the need to align the clock according to sun set and sun set. The essay was meant to be a joke. He further suggested that Parisians could save on the cost of candles if they got out of bed earlier in the morning.

It is said that he got this idea after riding his horse one summer morning and noticing how many blinds were still down, which was pointing towards the wastage of sunlight.

DST became mandatory during WWI

During World War 1, in order to save coal for war efforts, Germany and several other European countries enforced the DST system. They believed DST was a way of reducing the use of electricity. But it is still controversial as there is hardly any proof that says that DST saves or reduces electricity.

After World War II, a lot of chaos was caused in America as some cities refused to stick with DST. Then 1966, the uniform time act was enforced which standardised DST from last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.

Different times for different countries

Not everyone changes the clock on same date. Even in Canada, many provinces don’t follow DST. Israel usually changes the clock on the last Sunday in October.

Brazil on the other hand changes its time on third Saturday in October.

More time for Trick or Treat!

DST is a blessing for candy makers. Longer amount of daylight in the fall means more time for kids to go trick or treating on Halloween. Candy makers enjoy their sales as kids get extra hour of daylight to collect candy.

Barbeque industry also has a lot of stake. In 1986, when U.S. added extra month of DST, it was worth $100M in extra sales of grills and charcoal briquettes.

Everyone won’t be on time!

People often get confused during DST. They forget to either fall back or spring forward. So it eventually results in them getting late or coming early at their workplace.

Alert! Exam Scores can be Messed

It’s a warning for high school students or teenagers preparing for entrance exams. The change of time can mess up sleep schedules of teens causing them to perform poorly on college exams. SAT tests are administered after DST. So beware!

Health problems and accidents increase

Lack of sleep can have unfortunate effects. A Swedish study reveals the risk of having heart attacks increases in first three weekdays after switching to springing forward.

Losing one hour of afternoon daylight after setting the clocks back to standard time can trigger mental illness, including bipolar disorder and seasonal effective disorder also called winter depression.

Subtle changes in sleep patterns and circadian rhythms can alter human alertness which can cause fatal car accidents.

People who work at physically taxing jobs such as miners have been shown to experience more frequent and severe workplace injuries at the onset of daylight saving time in the spring.

The researches attribute the injuries to lack of sleep, which might explain why the same effect did not pop up in the fall when workers gained an hour of sleep.

Longer cyber loafing

Cyber loafing is a slang word for surfing for entertainment during work hours. It can cause the companies thousands of salary wages flushed down the internet tube.

Lack of workday motivation and focus caused due to lack of sleep in the spring may cause this increase.

People want it repealed

DST favouring folks often argue that DST is energy conserving, promotes outdoor leisure activity during summer nights, which helps in psychological health and reduces accidents. Urban people usually support DST.

But according to farmers living in the rural areas, the natural biorhythm of animals and humans is disrupted by this system. National geographic argues that actual energy savings benefits are inconclusive.

Don’t become victim of DST change. Just remember

Spring: forward

Fall: back.

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