There are a lot of mixed feelings about Daylight Saving Time and whether or not it should be recognized.
Take a look at what would change if Daylight Saving Time were to always be a thing and in contrast, look at would happen if it were never a thing.
When Is Daylight Saving Time?
First off, for anyone wondering, Daylight Saving Time is not plural. It's singular. It's NOT Daylight Saving(S) Time. Simply, it's just Daylight Saving Time (DST).
Daylight Saving Time ends on November 1, 2020, at 2 a.m. At this time, all clocks will jump from 2 a.m. back to 1 a.m. in the matter of an instant.
What's the Point of Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight Saving Time started in the U.S. as an energy conservation trick during World War I. Then, in the 1960s, it became the national standard.
Presumably, making the daylight hours last longer in the evening, it would mean that we wouldn't need to turn the lights on as soon or as frequently and that would ultimately save electricity. Think, if the sun sets at 8 p.m. rather than 7 p.m., you can wait for just that much longer to turn on your lights at night.
In the morning, sleeping during more of the "nighttime" will ultimately allow you to enjoy more sunlight once you wake up.
What If DST Goes Away ... or Stays Forever?
Since I recently found a handy site talking about this specifically, I want to showcase some of the findings. Andy Woodruff is a cartographer and built maps to show what happens with our current DST situation, what would happen if there were no DST, and what would happen if DST was to be in place all year long.
What he measured and mapped were the number of days with reasonable sunsets and sunrises. Reasonable, as defined by Woodruff, was for sunsets to occur after 6 p.m. and for sunrises to happen before 7 a.m. Here are the results:
The map below shows what the current situation is regarding DST.
Awesome maps put out by @awoodruff on Daylight Saving Time the way it currently is seen. pic.twitter.com/sGHGw9l9Cl
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) March 6, 2020
This notably shows that a lot of people have unreasonable sunrise times with the way we change clocks. Unreasonable sunrise times are shown in the darker colors below.
What if there was no such thing as Daylight Saving Time?
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) March 6, 2020
Well, it looks like sunrise times would over be better but sunset times would be worse concerning *reasonable* times. @Awoodruff pic.twitter.com/Niu1FUZzKp
And below is what it would look like if DST were to always be in effect. The sunrise situation would be notably worse for many but the sunset time being continuously later in the evening would allow for more after work outdoor activities and that is something that is argued to have positive health benefits.
What if DST were always in effect?!
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) March 6, 2020
Well, mornings would be impacted rather greatly but sunset times would be much better for a majority of people.
This is the argument for so many - more daylight after a workday is beneficial for numerous reasons. @awoodruff pic.twitter.com/erF1tA46uD
It's important to remember that the length of light we experience each day would not change. The change in the amount of light we see is determined by the tilt of the Earth's axis.