Remember To Fall Back!

Whether you want to thank or blame Benjamin Franklin for his whimsical idea, just remember to set your clock back one hour before going to bed Saturday.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is over, and Standard Time is back. DST is a system that helps us shift with the seasonally changing daylight hours and allows us to avoid waking up in the wee, dark hours during winter.

Franklin first proposed the practice in a humorous essay he wrote in 1784 called "Turkey vs. Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle." Whether he meant it as a joke or not, the idea was adopted by the U.S. and some European countries during World War I and II, in an effort to preserve fuel used for electricity.

Congress passed DST into law in 1966. Most states comply with DST, although it is not federally mandated. Arizona, Hawaii, the eastern time zone portion of Indiana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa do not follow daylight saving time.

For most of the U.S., DST begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April. We revert to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

To read more about the history and use of Daylight Saving Time, see the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement's WebExhibit.