Exploring The Intriguing Truths Behind Daylight Saving Time

Spring Ahead This Weekend
Blame Ben Franklin & LBJ
Farmers Daylight Myth Debunked

The countdown is on to daylight savings time. (DST) At 2 a.m. on this Sunday, 3/20/24, clocks will spring forward one hour. You'll lose sleep and not everybody loves it. How did we get here? Let's find out.

Who's Idea Was DST Anyway?

I guess being on the 100-dollar bill wasn't enough! Benjamin Franklin introduced the idea of daylight saving time suggesting that doing so would decrease the use of candles and save money. Don't forget he's the "penny saved is a penny earned" guy.

Ben Brought Backup, 100 Years Later

If DST bugs you, you are getting close to the modern-day concept of time adjustment. According to National Geographic, the whole idea was about bugs! In 1895, George Hudson, an entomologist from New Zealand, came up with the idea of daylight saving time. He proposed a two-hour time shift so he'd have more after-work hours of sunshine to go bug hunting in the summer.

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Myth - Daylight Saving Time Has Nothing To Do With Light For Farmers

A lot of people think the clock adjustment was designed to benefit agriculture but DST was never implemented for farmers. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says it's time to put some weed spray on that idea. The move was made during World War I. (sounds like Ben Franklin!)

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Two States Preserve The Standard Of Standard Time

Hawaii and most of Arizona, do not observe daylight saving time and instead operate on permanent standard time. Simply put, why "save" daylight when you already have a surplus of summertime sunshine? (Have you been to Phoenix in August?)

The Arizona Republic explains, that by remaining on Mountain Standard Time year-round, the sun sets earlier providing some relief from the heat of a a hot Arizona summer day. It's the sun that keeps Hawaii from switching the clocks, too.

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Daylight Saving Time Sounds A Lot Friendlier Than FDR's "War Time"

It was our longest-serving President who set the parameters on how clocks should be set Franklin D. Roosevelt briefly re-enacted daylight saving time during World War II. It was called “War Time.” In 1966 former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act. The act determined the annual six-month divide. (He didn't get us out of Viet Nam but he managed to get us into this annoying cycle. Sheesh!)