Last weekend, we went through the annual...

Last weekend, we went through the annual spring ritual of setting our clocks ahead one hour for daylight saving time. Each year, daylight saving time begins on the first Sunday of April and ends on the last Sunday in October.

* Proponents say the annual practice saves energy because the sun sets one hour later and, therefore, the period between sunset and bedtime is reduced by an hour--meaning less electricity is used for lighting and other appliances.

* Daylight saving time was introduced in the United States during World War I. During World War II, the United States observed year-round daylight saving time from Feb. 2, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of daylight saving time throughout the nation.

* But not everyone thinks this annual spring ritual is a great idea. Some think it’s an idea whose time has come--and gone. Lifestyles are not what they were during World War I. And besides the bothersome task of resetting all our timepieces, DST disrupts sleep patterns, robbing people of an hour of much-needed shut-eye. DST has been described as getting jet lag without leaving home. Some researchers have reported that the number of traffic accidents jumps nearly 8% the Monday immediately after our annual “spring forward.” Farmers, who like their daylight in the morning hours, have traditionally been the chief adversaries of DST.

* Standard time in time zones was instituted in the United States by the railroads in 1883 based on the ideas of Charles Dowd. Since there are 24 hours in the day, Dowd divided the Earth’s 360 degrees by 24--so each time zone is roughly 15 degrees. Before then, time of day was considered a local matter, where most cities and towns used a local sundial or clock as the agreed-upon standard. The standard time system was not immediately accepted by all. It was not until 1918 that Congress adopted the standard time zones set up by the railroads.