This Sunday morning at 2:00 am will be the time to set our clocks back. We will get that extra hour of sleep we lost back in the spring.

Below is a little background on Daylight Savings Time.

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About Daylight Saving Time

The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.

The rationale behind Daylight Saving Time is to save energy in the summer months by extending the daylight in the evening when more people would be using more lights and electricity.

History of Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time was conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. Then in 1907, Englishman William Willett advocated Daylight Saving Time in the pamphlet, "Waste of Daylight" where he wrote:

"Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used."

Countries all over the world have set Daylight Saving Time for various reasons, including in times of war, and times of economic struggles to save on energy. There are those who are opposed to it and there are regions and countries that have used it and discontinued it. Throughout the past century, many countries, including the U.S. have had inconsistancies with Daylight Saving Time with lax laws and difficulties with the different regions setting different times. Britain was the first country to set the time throughout a region to one standard time. America set the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) to standardize the time between the regions. The law does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time; all the law says is that if we are going to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must be done uniformly.

The U.S. and Canada did not even have Standard time in time zones established until 1883 which was established by U.S. Law with the Standard Time Act of 1918. This act also set a Daylight Saving Time which was repealed the following year, re-established during WWII and continued nationally thru 1945. After the war, it varied among the states and regions and become confusing without any standards in place specifically for Daylight Savings. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) standardized the dates for starting and ending Daylight Saving Time. It does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time and provides for exemptions from its observance by the states, but states that if it is observed, it must be done uniformly.

The U.S. state and territories that do no observe Daylight Saving Time is Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

It has changed in start and end times several times since and in 2007 it was extended one month in the U.S. to change at 2am and begin on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November.