Twice a year, many people around the world have to reset their clocks to adjust to the new official time: we put one hour forward in spring and one hour back in autumn. This happens in most countries of the northern hemisphere and in some of the southern one, and started about a century ago, during the First World War in Germany.
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| Image: 'Eternal clock' http://www.flickr.com/photos/21046489@N06/3387189144 |
The idea behind it is to save energy by making the most of daylight. In spring and summer, we get one more hour of daylight in the evening, thus using less electricity for lighting. However, this advantage is offset by the need for more lighting in winter mornings: people have to turn on the lights when they get up, and that's why we go back to the usual time in the winter months: it simply doesn't compensate, because what we save during the evening, we spend during the morning.
It may save energy, but many scientists sustain that daylight saving time can affect our health: apparently, there are more traffic and wokplace accidents, as well as heart attacks and even suicides! Nobody knows why this happens but it's a fact that cannot be denied. The root of the problem could be that in a sleep-deprived society like ours, losing one more hour of sleep makes us less fresh and more prone to accidents.
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| Image: 'Spring forward, fall back' http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124404848@N01/58242322 |
In this video there are some tips that you can follow in order to feel rested and refreshed after “losing” this hour.
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