Like it or not, our annual ritual of early March – changing our clocks to daylight saving time – is coming Sunday at 2 a.m. …
Like it or not, our annual ritual of early March – changing our clocks to daylight saving time – is coming Sunday at 2 a.m. But since most of our computers, smartphones and DVRs automatically change the time for us, it’s not as much of a chore as it used to be. Unless you have smart appliances, microwaves and ovens are on the short list of household items that will need a manual adjustment. Who’s in charge of DST? When did it start? Why does the United States and more than 70 other countries observe it? Here are the answers to those questions, and more: We all lose an hour of sleep on Sunday when going to DST, as the day is only 23 hours long. Starting Sunday, that one hour of daylight is basically shifted from morning to evening as daylight saving time begins. We don’t go back to standard time until Nov.6. Surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Transportation is in charge of daylight saving time and all time zones in the U.S. « The oversight of time zones was assigned to DOT because time standards are important for many modes of transportation, » according to the department’s website. DST became a national standard in the U.S. in 1966 with the passage of the Uniform Time Act.
