Be the water cooler expert about Daylight Savings Time

funny93-daylightsavingstimeThe second Sunday in March marks the day when most of those in the U.S. and Canada (and many other nations in the world) “spring forward” by turning their clocks ahead one hour in observance of Daylight Savings time.  The good news is, the days start growing longer, offering more time to enjoy outdoor adventure and a rock on the porches and patios of Distinctive Inns of New England (DINE) as the days get longer.  While there are some bad-news health consequences of shorter days (or losing an hour of sleep), they are outweighed by the health benefits (like additional vitamin D) of longer days. Either way, Daylight Savings Time is another reminder that spring is around the corner, and with spring come sunny getaways to DINE’s eleven member inns.  Look forward to tiptoeing through the tulips and discovering new renovations at DINE member inns this spring.

How’d it all get started?

According to CBC News, “Daylight time” was first conceived and enacted in Germany in 1915, Britain, much of Europe and Canada quickly followed. These nations governments reasoned that because the sun rose while people were still asleep, that light would naturally be better suited to be used during the waking hours and the days should be extended to allow more time spent in daylight. Their foregone conclusion was to push the clocks ahead one hour in springtime, forcing people to wake an hour earlier and spend less energy and materials trying to light their homes. When the days started getting shorter in the fall and people awoke to increasing darkness, the clocks were naturally turned back an hour to get more light in the morning.

During the Second World War, a different form of daylight time was reinstated by Britain and clocks were set two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time during the summer, according to CBC News. This was known as Double Summer Time. The time shift didn’t end with the summer, as clocks were rolled back to be one hour ahead of GMT through the winter.

Finally, the Uniform Time Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966, established a system of uniform (within each time zone) daylight time throughout most of the U.S. exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time. Finally, 2007 legislation in the U.S moved the start of daylight time three weeks earlier in the spring and the return to standard time a week later in the fall. This change was intended to aid in saving energy, once again allowing people to keep the lights off as long as possible.  Canada followed with its own legislation to coordinate with the U.S. it’s largest trading partner.

Did you know?

Here are a few little known facts about daylights savings time that will make you an expert around the water cooler today.

  • Arizona and Hawaii in the U.S. and Saskatchewan plus some parts of B.C. in Canada don’t observe daylight saving’s time. The majority of countries in Asia and Africa don’t subscribe to the clock changes either. Thus, when traveling to these areas, the time difference may change by an hour depending upon when you travel.
  • heartattack2Take care of your heart when you spring forward.  A Swedish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 found a 7-percent  higher incidence of heart attacks  in the first three weekdays after the clocks spring forward, which researchers attributed to a lack of sleep.  The same study reported a similar decrease when the clocks fall back in the fall. The information was based on Swedish records collected over a 20-year period.  Our conclusion: book your New England DINE getaway around the onset of Daylight Savings Time and give yourself permission to stay in bed that extra hour!
  • CBC News also reported  that two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, found that the end of  daylight time has a significant impact on the number of pedestrians killed by vehicles in the immediate aftermath of the switch. Their conclusion was that it wasn’t the darkness per se that increases the number of deaths in the fall, rather, it’s that drivers and pedestrians have spent the previous months getting used to the light conditions, and don’t immediately adjust their behaviors to account for less of it during rush hour.  Our take on this:  visit DINE inns, each located in towns in DINE Country where rush hour is dictated by breakfast, tea time and happy hour.
  • If you’re already having trouble sleeping, Daylight Savings Time might make it even harder. The treatment of insomnia revolves around getting patients onto a regular sleep schedule, and the time change can raise havoc with that.  If you’re an insomnia, better plan your DINE getaway around daylight savings time and allow the fabulous beds, firelight or whirlpool tub to lull you to sleep.

A Time Tale

This is a true tale of a man arrested twice at the same time on the same day by the same officer, according to CBC News Canada. An Ohio man was arrested at 1:08 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2012, and  taken to the police station and released a short time later. However, at 2 a.m. that morning, the clocks were set back to 1 a.m. The man was arrested exactly one hour after his initial booking by the same officer, again for drinking and driving. The time was 1:08 a.m. His blood-alcohol level, however, was slightly lower the second time around.

Our Conclusion

For the betterment of your health, safety and beauty, book your DINE spring getaway around the time the clocks are changing.  It’s not too late to decide to spring forward into a getaway to one of the 11 Distinctive Inns of New England today!