Daylight Saving Time is Sunday

What? Time to spring forward again? So soon?

The Christian Science Monitor reminds us we did it to ourselves, in the name of not just daylight saving, but energy saving. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended the entire period of daylight saving time by four weeks. Since it took effect in 2007, we have switched our clocks forward on the second Sunday in March for Daylight Saving Time, and then back again for Standard Time on the first Sunday in November. Before 2007, Daylight Saving Time began at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ended at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday the following October. 

For a quick history on the practice in the U.S. and elsewhere, (trivia quiz: Was it Ben Franklin or George Washington who promoted the idea?) see our sister publication, the Huffington Post for some fun facts, including which states or territories in the U.S. do not have turn their clocks backward or forwards.

One thing that is becoming known, the loss of even one hour of sleep has a big impact on us. The National Sleep Foundation used this week, that ends in the time switchover, to promote awareness of the importance of sleep.

Part of it included an event on Friday, where Santa Clara County hosted Mark Rosekind, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, to speak about fatigue as a causal or contributing factor in the crashes it investigates. Rosekind is the former director of the Center for Human Sleep Research at the Stanford University’s Sleep Center, and Rosekind directed the Fatigue Countermeasures Program and was Chief of the Aviation Operations Branch in the Flight Management and Human Factors Division at the NASA Ames Research Center.

The poll released by the sleep foundation this week that found that the people we trust to take us on planes, trains and automobiles and buses struggle with sleepiness on the job. It compared the sleep habits of 795 transportation workers—pilots, truck drivers, taxi, limo or bus drivers, and train operators. More than a quarter of pilots said they'd experienced the effects of sleepiness while working, 16 percent of truck drivers, 22 percent of train operators, and 16 percent of bus/taxi/limo drivers. And 18 percent of train operators reported near misses, 14 percent of truck drivers, 12 percent of bus/taxi/limo drivers, and 11 percent of pilots.