Daylight Savings Time

Rachel B. and Courtney C.

Daylight saving time has zoomed past and we are in a tornado of exhaustion. We seem to change our clocks without really thinking about it..

Daylight saving time started out in Canada. It was introduced to the U.S. in 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Soon after, the U.S. abandoned DST, and it wasn’t picked up again until President Franklin Roosevelt permanently continued it during World War II in 1942. According to the article “History of Daylight Saving Time DST” from timeanddate.com, the reason daylight saving time was started was to support the war effort.

To some people, daylight saving time doesn’t have much purpose except to make people feel tired and rushed.

“I feel like I’m rushing. It doesn’t really line up with my schedule,” said Morgan Z., a sixth grader.

“I feel like it doesn’t make any sense and it doesn’t have a point,” said Kaiden J, a sixth grader.

After the war, people thought of daylight saving time as a way to get more use out of sunlight for outdoor activities since there is no reason to support much war effort now.

Daylight saving time can also make people disoriented for a couple of days. It might take a while to get used to. That could also cause some late alarms the following morning. All of these reasons explain why many people want to get rid of daylight saving time completely. Senator Betty Olson passed the Senate bill against DST, stating that she and a couple of her neighbors were sick of switching clocks and adjusting to the change. Senator Olson is not the only who is against DST.

“It confuses me a lot. It takes away an hour of sleep and I get really tired. I feel like I can’t function. I always think that it’s the time it was before daylight saving time,”  Hannah I., an eighth grader.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Optimists may look at daylight saving time as an improvement. They consider how DST makes the sun appear to stay out longer and kids like the thought of being able to sleep later.

“I like going to bed later even though I have to wake up earlier,” said Nicole O., a sixth grader.

Daylight saving time affects a chunk of our lives in both positive and negative ways. At least the next time you have to change all the times on your clocks you will know the reason.