So thankful for that extra hour of sleep this past weekend as daylight savings turned back our clocks. In honor of falling back we wanted to share an excerpt from an excellent article about the history of, as well as the pros and cons of daylight savings time.

How Daylight Savings Time Started

“Ben Franklin—of “early to bed and early to rise” fame—was apparently the first person to suggest the concept of daylight savings, according to computer scientist David Prerau, author of the book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.

While serving as U.S. ambassador to France in Paris, Franklin wrote of being awakened at 6 a.m. and realizing, to his surprise, that the sun would rise far earlier than he usually did. Imagine the resources that might be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil, Franklin, tongue half in cheek, wrote to a newspaper.

“Franklin seriously realized it would be beneficial to make better use of daylight but he didn’t really know how to implement it,” Prerau said.

It wasn’t until World War I that daylight savings were realized on a grand scale. Germany was the first state to adopt the time changes, to reduce artificial lighting and thereby save coal for the war effort. Friends and foes soon followed suit.

In the U.S. a federal law standardized the yearly start and end of daylight saving time in 1918—for the states that chose to observe it.

During World War II the U.S. made daylight saving time mandatory for the whole country, as a way to save wartime resources. Between February 9, 1942, and September 30, 1945, the government took it a step further. During this period daylight saving time was observed year-round, essentially making it the new standard time, if only for a few years.

Since the end of World War II, though, daylight saving time has always been optional for U.S. states. But its beginning and end have shifted—and occasionally disappeared.”

Be sure to visit the full article (linked in the blue box below) for the full history, the implications of daylight savings time on energy use and productivity and more. 

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excerpt from article on National Geographic by: Brian Handwerk, originally published: Mar 9, 2012 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/120309-daylight-savings-time-2012-what-time-is-it-spring-forward-nation/  photograph by: Annie Griffith Belt, National Geographic