It’s that time of year again when we set our clocks back an hour and our days get darker faster, and it only happens in America. Daylight savings has been a controversial topic for years, on whether we should get rid of it or not. I personally believe that we should keep it because of tradition, we gain an extra hour of sleep, and there’s no immediate reason to get rid of it.
Daylight savings began in the early 1900s to help conserve energy around the world following World War I, and was used for World War II. It wasn’t until 1966 that the Uniform Time Act was passed and made daylight saving time official in America. Clearly, daylight saving has been around for quite some time, so why stop now? Daylight savings can be harmless; in fact, it can even be lifesaving.
Despite what a lot of people think, the crime rate is not affected by daylight savings; this is a common misconception, according to CNET. In a way, it scares people into installing more protective equipment and taking that extra precaution at night, or maybe not walking and driving instead. Not only that, but according to NBC News, the fallback can decrease traffic accidents. In the dark, people tend to drive slower and more cautiously.
An immediate gain is that extra hour of sleep, which helps many U.S citizens catch up on much-needed rest. I as well caught up on sleep after a long week of school and Halloween events. Besides the fall back, having the wonderful benefit of the extra hour of sleep, it also becomes more aligned with the natural daylight in the winter, which helps our circadian rhythm.
The benefits of daylight savings are not just personal, but also well. According to Virginia Tech News, the retail industry, whether online or in person, and the medical industry do very well around the time of the fall back. People tend to stay in more when the sun goes down and tend to shop online a lot.
Daylight savings has many benefits in spite of the negative effects people focus on, but instead, we should take into account all the things daylight savings helps with.