# The Original Purpose, And Continued Purpose Of Day Savings Time Is?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 4, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176 "2007-11-04T09:44:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/1 "2007-11-04T09:44:29Z")
So I have heard it is to save energy, or to make it easier for kids to see when they go to school, or to milk cows or…
So why do most states and countries continue to have daylight savings time?
Is there a valid reason to keep doing this other than to annoy me and cause drivers to be insane when they suddenly have to drive home in the dark Monday night?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/2 "2007-11-04T13:24:48Z")
The purpose & result remains just what it has always been: to put more natural light at the clock times when people are up, so as to reduce energy consumption for artificiallight.
The folly of it in the US is simply that each timezone has 4 corners: North East, SE, SW, & NW, and the subjective experience of how beneficial the shift is is greatest in the NE corner of any given TZ. You know, where everybody lived 70 years ago & where most people are moving away from now.
Historically virtually all political power in the US came from the northeast corner of the Eastern TZ, plus a little from the northeast corner of the Central TZ. Nobody else mattered.
A smarter way to acheive the same result would simply be to leave the clocks alone. And develop the cultural expectation that individual businesses & such have summer & winter hours that make sense for their local latitude/longitude/climate.
Now practically peaking, the farther north you live, the more DST really does some good. It does have real value for those folks up where it snows. But it all really revolves around the human stubbornness that says “Year round I go to work when the mechanical ticking thing says 8, regardless of whether that is light or dark, hot or cold”.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/3 "2007-11-04T23:49:17Z")
Psst. It’s Daylight _Saving_ Time. Savings are in banks.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/4 "2007-11-05T01:11:50Z")
The original, and only continuing reason, is to allow another hour of shopping for commercial retailers. Everything else is a smoke screen.
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/5 "2007-11-05T14:34:04Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
The original, and only continuing reason, is to allow another hour of shopping for commercial retailers. Everything else is a smoke screen.
[/QUOTE]
Completely false, since it was originally adopted as a war measure.
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### Author:  [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/6 "2007-11-05T14:45:04Z")
I think it’s to keep us on our toes. 😉 I never voted for this twice-yearly torture… it’s not as if I don’t have enough problems with my Circadian rhythm!
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### Author:  [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/7 "2007-11-05T15:07:12Z")
Not many people know this, but the original concept for Daylight Savings Time came from a wise old Indian chief, who cut one end off of his blanket and sewed it on the other end to make it longer.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/8 "2007-11-05T15:09:58Z")
I think it persists because most people in higher latitudes like shifting their operating hours sun-wards in summer. Otherwise we’d have more early-morning hours of broad daylight in which nothing was open. Adjusting the clocks by law is easier than persuading every single business to open and close an hour earlier. So it’s one of those things governments can achieve that nobody else can.
But I agree that such things should ideally be achieved by persuasion rather than coercion. If the people won’t be persuaded, take it as a sign that there is good reason not to make the change. I almost think that governments tinker with DST purely because it is one of the few big things they can easily change, in a democratic country. Certainly, there seem to be DST arrangements in all sorts of small countries closer to the equator than us, that are surely hard to justify on economic grounds.
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### Author:  [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/9 "2007-11-05T15:18:31Z")
Blast! FatBaldGuy beat me to it!
Hmmmm… FatBaldGuy is a fair description of me…
Hmmmmmm…
Just sayin’…
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/10 "2007-11-05T15:22:03Z")
So people have more time to spend money in the summer.
Tris
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/11 "2007-11-05T15:26:01Z")
[QUOTE=Usram]
Certainly, there seem to be DST arrangements in all sorts of small countries closer to the equator than us, that are surely hard to justify on economic grounds.
[/QUOTE]
I’m comparing a [map of the tropics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_map_torrid.svg) with a [map of Daylight Saving Time areas of the world](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DaylightSaving-World-Subdivisions.png), and I don’t see it. The northern states of Brazil and Australia that are in the tropics are exempt. The only country entirely in the tropics that practices DST is Cuba.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/12 "2007-11-05T15:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon]
I’m comparing a [map of the tropics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_map_torrid.svg) with a [map of Daylight Saving Time areas of the world](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DaylightSaving-World-Subdivisions.png), and I don’t see it. The northern states of Brazil and Australia that are in the tropics are exempt. The only country entirely in the tropics that practices DST is Cuba.
[/QUOTE]
There are plenty of countries closer to the equator than Britain who use DST.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/13 "2007-11-05T15:57:29Z")
[QUOTE=Usram]
If the people won’t be persuaded, take it as a sign that there is good reason not to make the change.
[/QUOTE]
I disagree.
If the people won’t be persuaded, there _might be_ a good reason not to make the change. Or they might just be resistant to change.
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### Author:  [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/14 "2007-11-05T15:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=LSLGuy]
The purpose & result remains just what it has always been: to put more natural light at the clock times when people are up, so as to reduce energy consumption for artificiallight.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t get it. why only save daylight in the warmer months? Why not in the winter also? Up here in VT, the time shift means I waste morning daylight trying to get back to sleep, then drive home in the dark and waste energy on lighting all evening. Plus I can’t get any work done outside during the week anymore.
I know sunrise will be later as winter sets in, but the timing of the “fall back” makes no sense. Sunrise was at 6:30 this morning. Sunset is at 4:40 this afternoon. WTF? It’ll be December 29th before sunrise gets to 7:30 when I get up. Most people I know work 8:00 - 5:00, and don’t get up before 7:00 at the earliest.
I think it’s a all conspiracy by the !@#$% morning people!
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/15 "2007-11-05T16:22:35Z")
[QUOTE=masterofnone]
I know sunrise will be later as winter sets in, but the timing of the “fall back” makes no sense. Sunrise was at 6:30 this morning.
[/QUOTE]
In other words, if we were still on DST, it would be at 7:30. Large numbers of people, especially those with children and long commute times, have to get up earlier than that. (I have to get up at 6:45 to get to work by 8:00, and I don’t even have kids.) Once DST-sunrise creeps past 7:00, you lose as many person-awake-hours to darkness in the morning as you gain for daylight in the afternoon.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/16 "2007-11-05T16:47:00Z")
[QUOTE=masterofnone]
Most people I know work 8:00 - 5:00, and don’t get up before 7:00 at the earliest.
[/QUOTE]
I get up at 6 (not because I’m a **shudder** morning person, but because I have to leave for work at 7:15), and thought it was just delightful that it was light out – well, light-ish – when I woke up this morning. Getting up when it’s still dark out sucks massively.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/17 "2007-11-05T16:59:25Z")
Apropos to the last three posts:
Please note that when DST was lengthened recently (last year?), they started it three weeks earlier in the spring, but only one week later in the autumn. I beleive that this was exactly because of the sentiments expressed here: There was still some room for adjustment in the spring, but the autumn just can’t handle any more.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/18 "2007-11-05T17:14:17Z")
[QUOTE=masterofnone]
Most people I know work 8:00 - 5:00, and don’t get up before 7:00 at the earliest.
[/QUOTE]
:dubious:
I get up a 5am. I would prefer to stay on DST. It’s gonna be dark in the am for me either way. I don’t need light to get to work. It would be nice to have an extra hour in the afternoon though.
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### Author:  [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/19 "2007-11-05T17:28:05Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
I get up at 6 (not because I’m a **shudder** morning person, but because I have to leave for work at 7:15), and thought it was just delightful that it was light out – well, light-ish – when I woke up this morning. Getting up when it’s still dark out sucks massively.
[/QUOTE]
To each his own, but I’d rather get up when it’s still dark out and have daylight left when I get home, than try to get back to sleep when the sun wakes me up an hour before I need to get up.
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### Author:  [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-purpose-and-continued-purpose-of-day-savings-time-is/425176/20 "2007-11-05T17:36:48Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig]
In other words, if we were still on DST, it would be at 7:30. Large numbers of people, especially those with children and long commute times, have to get up earlier than that. (I have to get up at 6:45 to get to work by 8:00, and I don’t even have kids.) Once DST-sunrise creeps past 7:00, you lose as many person-awake-hours to darkness in the morning as you gain for daylight in the afternoon.
[/QUOTE]
Of course a lot of people have to get up earlier, but those that don’t have to are losing daylight, and isn’t energy cheaper in the morning anyway because it’s off-peak?
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