You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock beeping next to your ear. You are certain that you got less sleep than normal! Sound familiar?

This may have happened to you when Daylight Savings Time started at 2 am on Sunday, March 11.

During spring, you “spring” forward an hour, essentially skipping an hour during the night!

The History of Daylight Savings

You might be wondering, what exactly is the purpose of Daylight Saving Time? Daylight Saving Time started as a trick to save energy consumption during World War I when resources were scarce, and later became a national standard in the 1960s. The idea was to maximize the amount of natural light you could get so you wouldn’t need to use electrical lights.

Between the first Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November, sunset would happen an hour later, meaning extra time not using electricity. It also meant that you were less likely to sleep through daylight hours in the morning, since those hours were shifted too.

About 70 countries around the world observe Daylight Saving Time, including almost all of North America, most of Europe, and some of South America and Australia.

Pros versus Cons

Is Daylight Savings Time really worth it? On one hand, it causes the sun to rise and set an hour later which gives everyone an extra hour of afternoon sunlight which can motivate people to exercise, benefits the tourism industry, and improves road safety during later hours.

On the other hand, it disrupts everyone’s natural sleep cycles, or circadian rhythms, making a lot of people tired, sick, and less productive. Furthermore, its purpose originally was to limit energy use, but with today’s society and all the technology, it does not save energy anymore.

It might be frustrating to lose an hour of sleep, but now you know that you are participating in a century-old tradition!