It’s the inevitable season where I have become mentally and physically exhausted pretty much every single day. The culprit? Daylight Saving Time (DST).
The concept was first introduced in the United States during World War I with the Standard Time Act of 1918 — the first federal law in the nation to implement standard time and DST, establishing five time zones and authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to define their boundaries. The goal was to conserve fuel and energy by extending daylight hours. The section concerning DST was later repealed in 1919 after the war.
During WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round DST called “War Time” from Feb. 9, 1942 to Sept. 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding DST, so states and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe it and could choose when it began and ended.
However, the Uniform Act of 1996 was later signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson to end the confusion caused by different local laws and customs regarding DST. In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part of the state that was in one time zone, while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe DST.
The law was amended in 1986 to begin DST on the first Sunday in April. Under legislation enacted in 1986, DST in the U.S. began at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ended at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended it in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law, should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Going from 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. begins at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.
As you can probably tell, there is a vast collection of history associated with setting our clocks an hour ahead or behind every spring and fall. And there’s probably more than what I could find. Even so, there are several people, probably the majority of this nation’s population, that can attest that DST is no longer relevant and should not even be a thing anymore.
I am likely one of those people.
Aside from physically changing the clocks — or in today’s day and age, letting our phones do it for us — the time change can often just feel like an annoyance. In the spring, you are “springing forward,” so you lose an hour. Most people will go to bed later than normal and sleep in a little later. And then, in the fall, you are “falling back” an hour.
As of writing this, we are getting up to nearly a full week from setting our clocks an hour ahead for this season’s DST and I just keep thinking of that 2 o’clock exhaustion that I can likely expect every single afternoon. Now, I will admit that I have been going to bed later than I am used to, so that’s partly my fault, but here we are.
By the time that the fall back season comes, I am just barely going to be used to this current time change and I am sure I am not alone. So, who is really winning here?
DST was initially designed as a wartime measure, but has been claimed to be used for various other reasons since, including energy conservation, economic benefits and promoting more outdoor activities.
Now, I am no expert in any of that, but I just hope that, while little ol' me is struggling to find a balance of enjoying life after my 9-5 -— yet not staying up too late and getting enough sleep, but then also being able to get up early enough to fit in a workout before my 9-5 starts the next morning -— there is some kind of relevant meaning to the time change in 2025.
Navarro is the executive editor for the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. He can be reached by emailing [email protected].
