Karin Stanton/Hawaii247.com Contributing Editor
Most of the world did its springing early Sunday, but Hawaii remains happily cruising along in a time zone all of its own.
The rest of the world catches up to Standard Time by falling back the first Sunday in November.
This doesn’t really impact us much at all … unless you were used to watching BBC America’s news at 5 p.m. (now it’s on at 4 p.m.) or unless you need to call someone on the mainland at a specific time.
Hawaii is not alone in sticking to its own time. We are joined by American Samoa, Arizona (except some Indian Reservations), Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in not observing Daylight Saving Time. This, apparently, is because we are all closer to the equator and day lengths don’t change so much throughout the year. Â
Also, Baja California doesn’t do its springing forward until the first Sunday in April. Last year was the first year for this and while much of Baja just observed San Diego time, is kind of messed with workers, students and other daily international commuters.
When the U.S. Congress decided to extend daylight saving one month (something to do with the Energy Policy Act of 2005), Canada joined in; Mexico didn’t.
In addition to (obviously) impacting sleeping patterns, the time switch plays havoc with other stuff, too.
Studies and research around the world have found more heart attacks during the first week of Daylight Saving Time, but fewer fatal car wrecks. Who knew?
But, wait, there’s more …
* During Daylight Saving Time, the names of time in each of the time zones in the U.S. change as well. Eastern Standard Time (EST) becomes Eastern Daylight Time, Central Standard Time (CST) becomes Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain Standard Time (MST) becomes Mountain Daylight Tome (MDT), Pacific Standard Time becomes Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), and so forth.
* Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the U.S. during World War I to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. During World War II, the federal government again required states to observe the time change. Between the wars and after World War II, states and communities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time.
* Daylight Saving Time is four weeks longer since 2007 due to the Energy Policy Act in 2005. The Act extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, with the hope that it would save 10,000 barrels of oil each day through reduced use of power by businesses during daylight hours. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to determine energy savings from Daylight Saving Time and based on a variety of factors, it is possible that little or no energy is saved by Daylight Saving Time.
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* While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized a EU-wide European Summer Time. This EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October.
In the southern hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) don’t observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there’s no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer.
* Kyrgyzstan is the only country that observes year-round Daylight Saving Time. The country has been doing so since 2005.
 — Find out more:
Daylight Saving Time: http://geography.about.com/cs/daylightsavings/a/dst.htm
U.S. Naval Observatory: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/daylight_time.php
WebExhibits: www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html