Besides the Thanksgiving turkey, colorful scenic trees and comfy sweaters, there's at least one other reason to love autumn. It's the time of year that most of us in North America get to enjoy an extra hour of sleep thanks to the end of daylight savings.
This year daylight savings started on March 10 and will end on Sunday, Nov. 3 for those living in regions that observe it. It will officially end this Sunday at 2 a.m., which means we get a whole hour to press the snooze button Sunday morning.
Benjamin Franklin is credited for creating the idea of daylight saving time. However, it wasn't enacted in America until the Emperor of Germany Kaiser Wilhelm II implemented it in his country during World War I, according to David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time."
Not wanting to be outdone by the Germans, Great Britian and the U.S. also adopted the practice to save energy during World War I, and later again in World War II. The practice was then standardized with the 1966 Uniform Time Act, reports the National Geographic News.
However, not everyone will receive an additional hour of sleep next week since residents in Arizona, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands do not take part in the time change. As Arizona's KNXV-TV notes, the choice not to observe daylight saving is linked to the weather.
While daylight saving time has often been associated with energy conservation, the logic behind daylight saving has been called into question as of late. Switching to DST in the summer means more sunlight at night, which in turn means homes don't have to turn on lights as early. According to the federal government, that leads to energy and fuel savings, however, other studies suggest the practice does the opposite and may even result in increased use of electricity to provide lighting.
For example, The Christian Science Monitor reports that in Indiana, daylight saving time caused a 1 percent jump in electricity, according to a 2010 study. The energy saved from reduced lighting in the summer months was canceled out by an increase in the use of heating and air conditioning, the researchers from Yale University and University of California Santa Barbara said.
Most advocates cite a 2008 report to Congress by the Department of Energy, which showed that total electricity savings from the extended daylight saving period amounted to 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year. Though that's a small number, it could add up to an estimated $130 million in savings each year since electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt.