Every Autumn I dread changing the time back on the clock.  I really hate how it gets dark so early at night in the winter and then add to this the fact that it is now earlier, it really feels like time is being lost.    The other night  it was 5pm and my three year old son came downstairs wearing his pajamas.

When I questioned him he said that it “very very late”  and almost time to go to bed.  Which was funny to me since this child fights bedtime every night and seldom, if ever, has seen his bed before 9pm.

This year I found the transition especially difficult because I was traveling and  in a different time zone when the time change happened.

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory changing the time on our clocks has been a constantly shifting thing.

During the “energy crisis” years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on 6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April. In 1986, a law was passed that shifted the starting date of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight time was not subject to such changes, and remained the last Sunday in October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates. Beginning in 2007, daylight time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

With standard time getting shorter and shorter by comparison, one has to wonder why we don’t just stick with Daylight Savings time year round.