[Ed note: In Europe the clocks changed last weekend 26/27 Oct. And, as an aside, the EU is proposing scrapping the entire idea of changing clocks forwards/backwards which is receiving a lot of support.]
Daylight Saving Time - innocently conceived by the notorious early riser Benjamin Franklin, was not instituted in the United States until 1918 (because the Germans did it two years earlier and were already up taking advantage of the extra hour of daylight, so the hyper-competitive USA just had to do it also), has a variety of downsides (more prevalent in the Spring) including - Disrupted Sleep, Car Crashes, Stress, Heart Problems, Disrupted internal Clocks, and a variety of negative effects related to these (Obesity, depression, reduced performance, reduced alertness, increased blood pressure, inflammation, harsher sentencing, etc. etc.)
It is Fall however, and this Sunday is the better half of the DST coin where we gain an extra hour of sleep, and on Monday potentially smile briefly at our co-workers before staggering eerily towards the break room muttering cooofffeeeeeeee.
This Sunday, people across the United States can rest easy, literally, as they'll get an extra hour of sleep because daylight saving time comes to an end.
The change happens at 2 a.m. local daylight time on Nov. 3. While most wireless devices will "fall back" on their own, it's up to you to switch manual clocks — including those on microwaves, ovens and wristwatches — one hour back.
This means that as soon as the clock ticks to 2 a.m. on Sunday, it can be turned back to 1 a.m.
Daylight saving (not savings, as it's sometimes called) time won't start again until March 8, 2020, when the United States will, once again, "spring forward" an hour. [Daylight Saving Time 2019: A Guide to the When, Why, What and How]
So enjoy it for now, but unless our government suddenly decides to randomly do something that would be hugely popular across constituencies, inexpensive, relatively non controversial, and generally beneficial for the populace, know that you'll pay again for this brief respite in a few short months.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:51PM (4 children)
Does it even matter all that much anymore? Most devices, operating systems, clocks etc adjust themselves these days. It was way worse before when you had to go about your entire house and manually set each and every clock. These days technology solved that problem. Plus as someone that could probably use that little bit of extra sunlight in the winter time I think it should stay. Spring forward, autumn back. It's not like it's hard to remember.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:20PM (2 children)
*Spring forward, fall back.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:49PM (1 child)
Fall? There ain't no such season.
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Monday November 04 2019, @02:06AM
Fall is from the Old English word for the season. When moving to North America, we kept the old name too.
Are the English proud to have adopted the French word?
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Monday November 04 2019, @06:04PM
Not been my experience. I have a bunch of "smart" thermostats and controllers (which aren't allowed to talk to the internet) and every one of them needed to be adjusted yesterday along with the ancient tick-tocking mechanical cuckoo clock. Even the weather instrument (which does listen to Denver, Colorado) and my Win10 machine needed to be adjusted. Not sure what the "DST" flag in these interfaces is supposed to do, other than sweet fuck all.