Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time(DST) is the yearly practice of setting clocks ahead one hour to give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Originally conceived in 1905 by William Willett, the practice of DST varies greatly across the world; some countries adopted it while others didn't, and those that did have their own variations and may or may not have kept with the practice up to the present. The United States adopted DST in 1918.

The benefits of DST are not simply cut and dried. William Willett's original idea was based on his thought that Londoners were sleeping through the best part of the day -early morning- and hoped that changing the clocks would help remedy that. The present-day notion is that DST saves energy, though this fact is debatable. It has also been suggested that the extra evening daylight helps to reduce traffic fatalities[1].

Aside from the advantages and disadvantages, DST is a fact of life for Cape Codders and most of the rest of the country. This year DST begins on March 8th and ends on November 1st. The chart below shows the beginning and end dates for DST for the next few years.

Year	DST Begins	DST Ends
2008	March 9	November 2
2009	March 8	November 1
2010	March 14	November 7
2011	March 13	November 6
2012	March 11	November 4
2013	March 10	November 3
2014	March 9	November 2

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References:

1. Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities. S A Ferguson, D F Preusser, A K Lund, P L Zador, and R G Ulmer Am J Public Health. 1995 January; 85(1): 92–95.