Daylight Saving Time officially ends at 2 a.m., Sunday, November 7, 2021, when the clocks “fall back” one hour. To best follow the time change, it is recommended to set the clock back an hour when heading to bed Saturday night.
Did you know? The concept of conserving fuel and adjusting sleep schedules was proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. As a U.S. ambassador in Paris, France, he wrote a satirical essay suggesting Paris residents could save candles and lamp oil by changing their sleep patterns.
“(With) 183 nights between March 20 and September 20, times 7 hours per night of candle usage, equals 1,281 hours for a half year of candle usage. Multiplying by 100,000 families gives 128,100,000 hours by candlelight. Each candle requires half a pound of tallow and wax, thus a total of 64,050,000 pounds,” Franklin wrote at the time. “An immense sum that the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.”
He also jokingly suggested guards be placed where candles are stored and that cannons should be fired at sunrise, along with chiming clocks, to ensure Parisians rose with the sun.
The first major effort in the U.S. was during World War I to help the country conserve fuel to put toward the war effort. After the war, the practice fell out of favor until World War II, when President Franklin Roosevelt instituted the program once again.
It didn’t become commonplace until January 4, 1974, when President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act.
Sources: The Franklin Institute re: Benjamin Franklin’s letter.