Day Light Saving

• 13 Mar 2019

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of turning the clock ahead as warmer weather approaches and back as it becomes colder again.

• The purpose of doing so is that people will have one more hour of daylight in the afternoon and evening during the warmer season of the year.
• The daylight saving time is followed in over 70 countries on various dates.
• India does not follow daylight saving time; countries near the Equator do not experience high variations in daytime hours between seasons.

History of Day Light Saving

• Initially, it was followed by a group of Canadians on July 1, 1908, when residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, turned their clocks forward by an hour. Other locations in Canada soon followed suit.
• However, globally Germany and Austria introduced DST on April 30, 1916, the rationale being to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel during World War I.

Does Daylight Saving Time actually save energy?

• A century ago, when DST was introduced, more daylight did mean less use of artificial light. But modern society uses so many energy-consuming appliances all day long that the amount of energy saved is negligible.
• There is also a disadvantage of DST which includes disruption of the body clock or circadian rhythm.

Circadian Rhythm

• Circadian rhythm is the 24-hour cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise, and eat—regulating many physiological processes.
• Internal body clock is affected by environmental cues, like sunlight and temperature, and determines whether one feels wide-awake and energized or tired.
• Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young, who studied the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm, were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in the category of physiology or medicine.