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The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

The Student News Site of Quinnipiac University

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

    Spring ahead to ‘Summer Time’

    Everyone across the United States, lost one hour of sleep between April 6 and April 7 due to Daylight Saving Time.
    There are many people who dread changing their clocks up an hour, technically losing the hour between 2-3 a.m. on the first Sunday in April.
    “It sucks to go to bed that night knowing you’ll have less time to sleep,” said sophomore Ashley Russell.
    Sophomore Kristen Peloso agreed.
    “I don’t understand why we have to do this,” she said. “It never made any sense to me.”
    The changeover time in the U.S. was chosen to be 2 a.m. because that is when most people are at home. There’s less disruption at that time, according to a Daylight Savings Time website. It is late enough not to affect bars and restaurants, and prevent the day from switching to yesterday, which would be too confusing.
    During Daylight Saving Time, clocks are turned forward an hour, effectively moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. The main purpose is to make better use of daylight.
    A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Savings Time because “there is more light in the evenings and one can do more in the evenings.”
    Benjamin Franklin first conceived the idea of Daylight Savings Time during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784. The idea was first advocated seriously by a London builder, William Willett. However, it was first in 1916 that many European countries adopted the idea of changing time twice a year.
    In many countries Daylight Savings Time is called “Summer Time,” while American’s remember which way to change the clocks by the expression “Spring forward.” Almost every country uses Daylight Savings Time. However, it is important to remember that the seasons are switched in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. When we have summer in the U.S., Australia and South America have winter. Therefore, times may differ by more than one hour.
    Today, changes are almost always done by one hour. In the past, time adjustments have been made by 30 minutes, 40 minutes and two hours. Sometimes countries have time adjustments for longer than normal, like during World War II in the United States, when most of the country had Daylight Savings Time for three and a half years. This was then called “War Time.”
    The main reason for changing our times is to preserve the daylight, and by this we also save energy. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Savings Time trims the entire country’s electricity usage by a small percentage, but a significant amount of less than one percent each day. Less electricity needs to be used for lighting and appliances, which saves energy in both the evening and the morning, according to the study.
    Daylight Savings Time will end at 2 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2002. At that time, everyone is expected to turn the clocks back an hour, therefore losing an hour of daylight.
    “The best feeling is knowing you have an extra hour of sleep,” said sophomore Denise Tretola.
    Although there are many who may not be thrilled with switching our clocks an hour forward this time of year, we have learned to save energy and enjoy sunny summer evenings.

    Information to this article also provided by Viktoria Sundqvist.

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