Sally Lor
Mar 13, 2024
Did you happen to be up late at night on March 10th and see the clock jump from 1 AM to 3AM? That was the time changing due to daylight savings. Daylight savings happen twice a year, and this year's most recent daylight savings happened on March 10th of 2024. Meaning we lost an hour of sleep. With daylight savings, we either lose an hour of sleep or gain an hour of sleep depending on if the time moves forward or if the time moves backwards. Daylight saving lasts up to 34 weeks (about 8 months.) Normally moving our time forward happens the first Sunday of March and moving our time backwards happens the first Sunday of November.
You may ask why and how daylight savings helps the United States. The reason why the US does this is to save energy. How do we do that, you might ask. With the extra hour we get it helps us stop using light since the sun will be out until later in the day and won't set until 7PM. By doing this, we save up to nearly 1.3 terawatt hours per year. Daylight savings is important because it helps us maximize daylight during the longer daylight hours. It helps us make use of the natural light and allows us to save electricity.
Overall, you may think daylight savings isn't as important but it's actually a big part of our world. With daylight savings starting, lets enjoy the extra light we get instead of having it be dark by 4.