It’s yet one more sign that spring is right around the corner. The clock setting on your cell phone should automatically adjust without your having to lift a finger to keypad, but as for your conventional clocks and watches, you’ll have to make the time to lose the time. Daylight Savings Time officially kicks in at 2:00 am Sunday March 14, so barring the unlikely event you’ll be staying up to the wee hours for the express purpose of tending to your time pieces, be sure to tend to them before you hit the sack or run the risk of being one hour out of sync with the rest of the world on Sunday morning.
It’s been three years since the daylight savings period was expanded, with the start date moved from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March, and the end date pushed back from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November. We’ll gain back that sweet, precious hour of snooze time we’re giving up this weekend later this year on November 7.
Sunset coming one hour later is probably for most of us the most dramatic and welcome result of the springing ahead. While the practice of the annual pairing of time changes is not universally popular, one blogger over at the Seattle Post Intelligencer puts a positive spin on the shift, pointing out that in addition to the later arrival of daily darkness, DST tells us that warmer weather can’t be far behind, and points out that it’s associated with fewer traffic accidents as well.
Canada News Wire reminds us that children may have some difficulty adjusting to the clock change, so a period of incrementally adjusted bed times may help them make the shift in a more gradual way. CTV.ca also offers a very important reminder to those who rely on medical devices such as glucose meters that have a clock function. Such devices made before the savings time period was expanded in 2007 may need to be adjusted manually as their internal programming is set for the outdated construct.
Whether you’ll be greeting the time change feeling a little bit creaky or with a spring in your step, we’ll all hopefully agree that the appearance of longer days represents a welcome change and promise of warmer, sunnier days to come.
Photo courtesy of DavidDennisPhotos.com via Flickr.