During World War I, Germany created daylight saving time as an energy saving measure in 1916 and it was later adopted by the United States in 1918.  

Many see daylight savings time as an hour of sleep lost during the “spring forward” when clocks are set an hour forward and the “Fall back” where clocks are set back an hour during non-daylight savings. But with the world not needing to save energy, it causes the question: why continue it?

In 1966, the Uniform Time Act was passed and made daylight savings time a permanent fixture, minus Hawaii and Arizona, which opted to stay year-round in standard time, This act was passed right before the energy crisis of 1974. According to the Coloradan, the year after the crisis, the U.S. adopted permanent daylight savings time (DST), but after the first winter, the support was not.

Students awoke on Sunday, March 8, with an hour lost after the clocks were set an hour forward, giving everybody one less hour of sleep. Many students were left waking up feeling more tired than usual. 

“[Daylight savings] sucks. I get less sleep and it doesn’t make me feel good,” Samuel Burkhart ‘27 said. “I would want to go back to standard time permanently because it would be cool, and I don’t like the time changing.”

However, unlike Burkhart, other students believe that daylight savings provides a nice change of schedule, which they are able to adapt to easily.

“[Daylight savings] isn’t my favorite since you get less sleep, so I do like winter more,” Nithika NamBriar ‘27 said. “I don’t think anything should be done about [daylight savings]. I kind of like how it is because it allows a change of sleep schedule.” 

According to the National Library of Medicine, students should try to avoid staying up too late and start their bedtime routines earlier to avoid the drowsiness that follows the morning after.

“I really like daylight savings,” Sophie Jelniker ‘27 said. “It provides a nice change, and I like waking up early because it is refreshing and gets me ready to start my day”.

Whether or not people want daylight savings to stay, it will be present for the next couple of years ahead. According to the Hill, many states are attempting to pass bills to set a permanent daylight savings time in place. However, these bills wouldn’t be ratified until the next decade due to congressional bills going back and forth in the Senate and the House of Representatives.