Get ready to spring forward for daylight saving time

Ideally, people would spend time outside, enjoying the extra hour of daylight, rather than sit inside, wasting energy on lighting, Franklin reasoned. If only we could save ourselves from the seasonal allergies.

The National Weather Service has some tips when “Springing” forward. They needed to be milked every 12 hours, and daylight saving time meant the farmer who once woke at sunrise to milk, now had to be up in the dark, using artificial light. We gain more hours of sunlight.

But a daylight savings revolution won’t happen overnight.

The United States first observed DST in 1918 as a way to save energy during World War I. The rules weren’t specific, so the government eventually created the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to align the dates. David Prerau, PhD, author of Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time likened the adjustment to taking a flight from Chicago (Central time zone) to New York (Eastern time zone).

However, not everyone agrees it offers energy saving benefits. In America, summer time saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day during the 1973 oil embargo. But states could exempt themselves if they chose.

Hawaii, most of Arizona, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and America Samoa are the only U.S. states and territories that do not observe daylight saving.

It’s time for a change – a time change, that is.

For a half century, Arizona – but not including the Navajo reservation – has refused to perform the standard-to-daylight-saving-and-back-again dance. Another study suggests that sleep deprivation on the Monday after the start of daylight saving time results in an increase in fatal vehicle accidents.

My husband has always been in the habit of adjusting just one clock the night before and resetting all the others the next day. The two later drafted a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, which would require a federal waiver.

Beyond just cutting sleep and making you groggy at work for a few days, daylight saving is a great opportunity to check smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, auto batteries or schedule a bi-annual tooth cleaning.