Many people hate the time of the year called Daylight Savings. The event happens in the spring and the fall, in the spring the time springs forward, so we lose an hour. In the fall the time falls back, so we gain an hour for the day. Many people love when we gain an hour because of extra time during their day or extra time to sleep. They also hate when we lose an hour because all the sudden they are late for everything and they sleep in too much. What does Daylight Savings Time really do for us and why do we have it?

Daylight Savings Time originally was just an idea in 1895 by George Hudson, an entomologist from New Zealand. He originally came up with this idea so he would have more time to go bug hunting in the summer. Later, British builder William Willett introduced this idea to the British parliament to prevent England from wasting daylight. Winston Churchill tried to share this idea from William, but the British parliament still refused. Daylight Savings Time later was taken by the German government in World War I to save energy. This caused everyone in World War I to take the idea of Daylight Savings Time to save more energy due to everyone using coal mining as a source of power. This soon spread to the United States and all over the map to save energy and have more daytime during the day. This is why we have Daylight Savings Time today, to save energy and to have more time during the day to work.

Even though sometimes we hate Daylight Savings Time, it actually helps us in the long run because with that extra time of sunlight during the day we could do an hour more of things we need to do during the day. If we didn’t have this extra time during the day, there would be that weird time at the end of the day where we go to bed and it is still light outside. Even though we look forward to this time during the fall for that extra hour it does, unfortunately, have to equal itself out in the spring when we lose that hour. So what was originally an idea by someone who basically just wanted more free time became an idea for the whole world to have more time and not to waste this extra time of sunlight?