Why do we do daylight savings?

Answer 1

Daylight saving time (DST), also known as summer time and sometimes referred to as daylight savings time, is a widely used system of adjusting the official local time forward, usually by one hour, from its official standard time for the summer months. This is intended to provide a better match between the hours of daylight and the active hours of work and school. The "saved" daylight is spent on evening activities which get more daylight, rather than being "wasted" while people sleep past dawn.

DST is most commonly used in temperate regions, due to the considerable variation in the amount of daylight versus darkness across the seasons in those regions.

Governments often tout it as an energy conservation measure, on the grounds that it allows more effective use of natural sunlight resource in summer time. Since there is less darkness in the "waking day", there is less use of electric lights. Some opponents reject this argument (see below, Criticism).

Europeans commonly refer to the system as summer time: Irish Summer Time, British Summer Time, and European Summer Time. This is reflected in the time zones names as well, e.g., Central European Time (CET) becomes Central European Summer Time (CEST).

The word "summer" in this context includes most of spring after the spring equinox and nearly all of autumn (April through October). Likewise, the word "winter" here includes part of autumn and a few weeks in spring (November through March). This varies by time zone, of course, and can change over time as well.

Answer 2

It's intended to provide a better match between the hours of daylight and the active hours of work and school. The "saved" daylight is spent on evening activities which get more daylight, rather than being "wasted" while people sleep past dawn.

Answer 3

Supposedly because that way we're awake more while the sun is up, and can take advantage of it more. I'm from Indiana, and we just switched to it this year. I hate it--I have to go to bed early because I have to get to work early, and it's murder trying to go to bed while the sun's still shining. And how do you keep a child from getting cranky on the 4th of July when fireworks don't start until 10:00 at night?

Answer 4

It was meant as a way to save on electricity dirind WW2 in the factoies. They thought that the cost of lighting saved made it worth while and they never went back.