Daylight Saving Time (DST)

7 min readNov 4, 2023

This post talks about the Daylight Saving Time abbreviated as DST, a phenomenon followed in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere which involves setting the clock forward and backward during the start of summer & winter respectively

What is the DST?

The Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a phenomenon where countries set their clocks forward by 1 hour in summer and then set it back by the same 1 hour during winter. This is followed by many countries (especially in the northern hemisphere) to make better use of the extended sunlight during summers.

Below is a map showing the countries that are implementing the DST as of the current year 2023

The exact dates of implementation of DST vary from continent to continent.

For example, in America, DST starts during the 2nd Sunday of March when clocks are set forward by 1 hour and ends on the 1st Sunday of November (Nov 5th this year) when clocks are set backward by one hour. In Europe, it starts during the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October (already ended on Oct 29th this year)

Let us look at why the need to implement this DST arose

Winding The Clock Back…

History suggests that DST came into being from 1908 when it was first implemented in Canada, though on a smaller scale and with less publicity.

However, the most widely recognized usage of DST was in the year 1916 when it was first implemented by Germany & Austria on 30 April 1916 during WW2 in a bid to save fuel for the war by minimizing the use of artificial lighting

In actuality, New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson & a British builder William Willett can be credited with suggesting the idea for DST in 1895. Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, proposing a 2-hour shift forward in October and a subsequent 2-hr backward shift in March. However, the idea was not carried forward with much gusto

In 1905, independently from Hudson, William Willett suggested a different approach: of setting clocks ahead by 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on each of the four Sundays in September, thus totalling a total of eight time switches per year.

Some sources also credit American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin as the first person who suggested the idea of DST. In a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris, titled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light,” Franklin suggested that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning. As per the paper published online, he mentions that one morning he woke up at around 6am and found the room to be flooded with sunlight. This made him reflect on what if people made more use of this natural sunlight rather than spend on oil for lamps in the night. This would mean people sleeping a bit early in the night and waking up early in the morning.

Though he merely suggested it as a joke and his letter does not involve “clocks”, in theory that is what DST sets out to achieve: Getting people out of bed earlier. Let us see how

How Does DST Work?

As everyone knows, during Summer the sun stays longer than it should in the sky which increases the length of the day (and also the temperature). This also implies that the sun is ready to wake us up earlier than usual

Let us take Germany, the first publicized nation where widespread usage of DST was reported. As per data from timeanddate.com, DST was implemented on the 25th of March this year and ended on the 29th of October

If we observe the sunrise and sunset timings in March, we see that the sun starts rising earlier and the length of the day increases as it nears the end of March. This essentially means that people are missing out on a lot of sunshine and productivity which they shouldn’t be. Hence, for this clocks are brought “forward” on the 4th Sunday of March at 2am i.e 25th March

This means that, on 25th March, your clock is at 1:59:59am. In the next second, it doesn’t go to 2am, but it goes to 3am. Essentially, you lose out an whole hour of sleep in the process!!! You wake up at what you think is 6:30am but it is not. It is actually 7:30am and the sun has just risen along with you. This is to ensure people make more usage of the sunlight. If the sun rises before us, we lose out on around an hour of productivity dues to which the clocks are brought forward to account for this

You can see in the below pic the change in sunrise and sunset timings post implementation of the DST

But hey, don’t worry!! You get back this extra hour in the 4th week of October. On 29th Oct this year, as people across Europe slept, their clocks went from 2:59:59 am to 2 am giving them an extra hour of sleep.

I managed to capture the same by heading over to the timeanddate.com website at the opportune time and screen recording the same on my phone

In America, the DST starts on the 2nd Sunday of March every year (11th March this year) and ends on the 1st Sunday of November. This year, it will be ending on 5th Nov, which is tomorrow. Hence, today midnight (5th November) as the whole of America sleeps, clocks will be moved back by 1 hour, granting everyone an extra hour of sleep. Really looking forward to that extra hour of sleep today night!!!

Fun Fact: There is one state in America that is untouched by all these clock shiftings: The State of Arizona.

The State of Arizona in America does not follow DST and has not followed the same for more than 50 years. They followed it in the year 1967 and after state legislators decided to opt out of it, ended it in 1968

DST In India?

India being a tropical country placed close to the equator, does not see much variations in sunlight during the year as opposed to countries in the northern hemisphere. Hence, it does not make sense for India to follow the practice of DST and accordingly, India does not follow DST

However, there are some online sources which mention that India followed DST in the year 1945 and briefly during the India-China wars in 1965 & the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965–1971 though there is not much data available to verify this exactly

Is The DST Required?

In the past few years, there have been a lot of discussions on whether the DST needs to be continued or implemented. While the European Union wants to do away with it entirely, America wants to implement it permanently. The base issue stems from the changing of clocks twice a year which creates some issues:

Scientists suggest that the sudden shift of time results in people losing an hour of sleep in March which takes people around a week to adjust to. This affect the circardian rhythm, leading to a loss of sleep which has been shown to be linked to an increase in car accidents during the week following this shift of time

In the USA, attempts were made to make the DST permanent instead of resorting to moving clocks back and forth. A bill was passed to this effect, called the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. Though the US Senate passed it with an unanimous vote in March 2022, it has been stalled since then

On 26th March 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of the EU Committee draft directive of stopping the 1-hour clock change in the European Union with a majority of members (63%) voting in favour of the draft. This vote was seen as a formal step towards the abolition of the DST permanently

Though the European Parliament planned to do away with the DST in 2021, a myriad of issues such as the Brexit, COVID pandemic and the Ukraine conflict have complicated matters and prevented them from going ahead with the same

Only the coming years will let us know if the largest users of the DST, Europe and America will take steps to do away with the DST

Thanks for reading!!!