Daylight Savings Time Begins Sunday
Winter is coming to an end, and already shades of green are popping up all around East Tennessee. With the coming warmer temperatures, budding trees, and splashes of color from spring flowers, comes another thing, Daylight Savings Time.
Beginning during World War I, Daylight Savings Time was implemented in the U.S. and other European countries as an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power. It was formally enacted in March of 1918, and was so wildly unpopular, was initially repealed in 1919. Daylight Saving Time became a local option, and was continued in a few states, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in some cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
From World War II to the mid 60’s, observance of Daylight Savings Time was inconsistent at best. Some regions of the United States could see as many as seven time changes in a 30 mile stretch of highway, so in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson created the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of uniform (within each time zone) Daylight Saving Time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.
Fast forward to present time, and one will see that the changes in the time twice a year are actually not popular with the majority of U.S. citizens. The public opinion comes with good reason. Heart attacks jump by 25%, stoke rates are 8% higher, workplace accidents are higher, and within the first several days of the change, the average adult loses 40 minutes of sleep nightly.
In Tennessee, House Bill 0247 has already passed the State Senate that would keep Daylight Savings Time all year. However, even if the bill gets passed at the state level, it cannot go in to effect until it is signed off by the federal government.
For now, though, this weekend, beginning at 2:00 am on Sunday, Daylight Savings Time will begin. So don’t forget to spring those clocks forward, or you’re definitely going to be late to church.
