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Ugh It's Time To Spring Forward And Lose An Hour Of Sleep: Why? WHY?

By Patty Wetli | March 10, 2017 8:44am
 There are lots of reasons for Daylight Saving Time, but none of them has anything to do with farming.
There are lots of reasons for Daylight Saving Time, but none of them has anything to do with farming.
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LINCOLN SQUARE — Hey Chicago, a word of caution as you prepare to celebrate an early St. Patrick's Day this weekend: You'll have one less hour to sleep off that hangover.

Daylight Saving Time — setting clocks ahead an hour — goes into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday. Ugh.

According to sleep experts, "springing forward" takes more of a toll than "falling back," largely because most Americans are already plenty sleep-deprived as it is.

Why, why, why must we suffer this national case of jet lag?

Turns out, there's no real reason.

A deep dive by Time magazine into the history of Daylight Savings debunked the common myths that springing forward somehow helps farmers (they actively lobbied against it) or saves fuel/energy (nope).

It has, however, widely benefited the golf industry and sales of barbecue equipment, according to Time.

Aside from boosting commerce, the primary point of Daylight Saving Time is right there in the name. It gives people an extra hour of daylight in the evenings during the warmest months of the year.

Curse it Sunday but come July, Daylight Savings goes from goat to hero.

Here are six fun facts about Daylight Saving Time:

• Got a beef with Daylight Savings? Take it up with Canada. Thunder Bay, Ontario, is the first location to use DST, back in 1908.

• Pretty much all of Europe and the United States introduced DST during World War I, ostensibly as a way to save fuel by decreasing the use of artificial lighting. Everyone reverted to regular time after the war, then reinstituted it during World War II.

• In the United States, Daylight Saving Time was originally called "Fast Time."

• It wasn't until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that Daylight Saving Time was standardized across the United States.

• More than 70 countries, with a total population of more than a billion people, use Daylight Saving Time.

• Think the annual springing forward and falling back is a giant pain in the alarm clock? It could be worse. William Willett, whose musings on "The Waste of Daylight" back in 1905 got the whole Daylight Saving Time ball rolling, suggested EIGHT time switches per year: four 20-minute "spring forwards" on consecutive Sundays in April, the same in the reverse in September. Because that wouldn't be confusing at all.

We leave you with one final pro tip from the experts at the National Sleep Foundation: Sleep in an extra 30 minutes on Sunday.