Should we scrap daylight saving time?

We asked Blake Shaffer, environmental and energy economist, and currently a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University, to weigh in on the pros and cons of daylight saving time.

There’s some controversy around who invented daylight saving time - some say it was Benjamin Franklin. Care to weigh in? I don’t think you could say Franklin invented it, but he was one of the first people to point out the folly of sleeping away the daylight hours, which he did in a satirical essay published in 1784. We do know that Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) was the first place in the world to implement DST, in 1908, so that’s kind of a claim to fame for our country.

Why there of all places? Societies further from the equator tended to adopt the time shift, since those closer don’t get the big swings in daylight hours. As to why Port Arthur specifically did it first, I’m not sure. But DST then became widely adopted during the First World War, when it was seen as a way to save energy by burning less coal. In 2005, George W. Bush expanded it so that we spring forward in March instead of April and turn the clocks back in November instead of October. That was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, so it was still tied to the idea that DST saves energy.

Does it? Definitely not in the same way it once did. Lighting technology has evolved so much even over the last 20 years: LED lighting uses up to 80 per cent less electricity than incandescent bulbs did. That said, last year my colleague Nic Rivers at the University of Ottawa published research that showed a 1.5 per cent reduction in energy in Ontario during DST. That’s a big deal, so I replicated the experiment in Alberta, where I live - and got the exact same result. But in any case, some

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Albertans would rather have sun in the morning. We’re a more agrarian society, so we tend to be early risers compared to Ontarians, who really like their sleep. Obviously, that’s a massive generalization… I don’t want to offend anyone! Well, one’s individual lifestyle is a big factor. If you’re a golfer, you might be a huge fan of DST because it means you can be on the course until after 10 p.m. If you’re a parent trying to get your children to school, you might prefer that hour of light in the morning. As the father of four, I can tell you that even just those few days of adjustment can be extremely trying. In our house, the kids set the schedule, regardless of what the clocks say.

I’ve heard that DST causes detrimental effects to our health. Should that be considered? When the clocks go forward, there is a demonstrable spike in heart attacks - and traffic accidents - based on losing an hour of sleep. But also, brighter nights are associated with more physical activity in the evening and a higher average caloric burn. Again, there are pros and cons to both.

There was a study seven years ago that claimed DST led to a spike in “cyberloafing” - that is, wasting time on the Internet. Have you heard of this? Yes, but I’m not sure that’s caused by DST. I guess if we’re going to attribute being tired to the time change, we can blame DST for a lot of things. But not being late. Smart clocks have mostly taken care of that. They have, but I still use manual clocks in one of our cars and on my stove. Also, the other day, Nic Rivers was supposed to call me at 9 a.m., and by 9:10, I was looking at the time and wondering why he was late. I had forgotten that he was in France, where they go back and forth in October and at the end of March.

If two DST experts can’t get a handle on it, what hope is there for the rest of us? That’s fair. We said the same thing.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Daylight Saving Time

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Myth: It’s Called “Daylight Savings Time” The Real Story: In North America and Australia, the convention of setting our clocks ahead one hour in the spring and behind one hour in the fall is properly known as “Daylight Saving Time.” For whatever reason, we’ve developed a habit of referring to it conversationally as “Savings Time,” plural. Britons refer to DST as “Summer Time,” while in Italy, the practice is called “Ora Legale.”

Myth: Benjamin Franklin Invented Daylight Saving Time

The Real Story: Thanks to An Economical Project, a satirical essay Franklin wrote in 1784 urging Parisians to adopt an earlier sleeping schedule, the U.S. Founding Father is often credited with “inventing” daylight saving time. Actually, that honour belongs to William Willett, a British builder. While on an early morning horseback ride on the outskirts of London in 1905, Willett theorized that if the United Kingdom moved its clocks forward by 80 minutes between April and October, Britons would be able to enjoy more sunlight. Willett spent much of his own personal fortune trying to persuade British Parliament to embrace the idea, but he died in 1915 without seeing his dream come to fruition.

Myth: Germans Were the First to Embrace Daylight Saving Time The Real Story: Germany adopted daylight saving time (DST) in 1916 to conserve energy during World War I. While Germany was indeed the first country to observe the practice, certain regions of Canada were already following DST as early as 1908. On July 1 of that year, residents of Port Arthur in Ontario - what is now

Thunder Bay - were the first in the world to turn their clocks forward by one hour. In Saskatchewan, Regina implemented DST in 1914 (where it was enormously popular with local townsfolk), and Winnipeg followed suit in 1916. The German Empire may have popularized daylight saving time, but Canadians beat them to the punch.

Myth: Daylight Saving Time is Observed Everywhere The Real Story: Changing the clocks may be standard practice across much of Canada, but not all countries observe daylight saving time. Countries along or below the equator, for instance, don’t implement time shifts since daylight hours rarely change from season to season. Much of Asia and Africa opt out of DST as well, as do Iceland and parts of Australia. Closer to home, Arizona, Hawaii, and regions of Quebec and Saskatchewan choose not to observe DST either. There’s one exception, however: even though Antarctica has no daylight in the winter and 24-hour daylight in the summer, research crews living in the area observe DST to communicate with their home bases.

Myth: Daylight Saving Time Makes Us Healthier The Real Story: More sunlight may mean more vitamin D, but numerous studies have also linked daylight saving time to a rise in road accidents and health problems. A 2008 Swedish study in the New England Journal of Medicine - based on information collected over a 20-year period - found a higher incidence of heart attacks in the first three weekdays after clocks move forward and fall back. Meanwhile, according to Manitoba Public Insurance, there was a 20 per cent increase in crashes on Manitoba roads when clocks moved forward an hour in the spring of 2014. Changes in circadian rhythm, too, can trigger cluster headaches and lead to days or weeks of discomfort.

Myth: Daylight Saving Time Helps Farmers The Real Story: When the United States passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, it gave rise to the myth that the extra daylight would give farmers more time to harvest their produce in the morning. In reality, it has the opposite effect, and farmers tend to have been the loudest critics of DST over the past several decades. One of the main reasons DST picked up steam in North America after the World Wars was because department stores lobbied for the practice. Why? Well, more daylight means more business: commuters leaving work while the sun is still shining are more inclined to shop before they make their way home.