Why do we have daylight saving time?

Intro hi it's Danny have you heard of daylight saving time you might know it has something to do with clocks in the United States there's a night in the spring when many people change their clocks they reset the time to go forward 1 hour that's the start of daylight saving time then in the fall people change their clocks to go back 1 hour that's the end of daylight saving time for the year here someone named Julio is curious about all this clock changing let's give Julio a call now hi gny hi Julio I have a question for you why do we have daylight shaving time that's a great question let's start with that first word daylight now you already know some things about daylight like how we get light from the sun we see the sun in the daytime then it sets and it's dark out there's a pattern of daylight and Daylight patterns darkness that repeats if you live somewhere with the seasons winter spring summer and fall you might know about another daylight pattern let me show you what I mean here's what the sky looks like when I have dinner in the winter and this is what it looks like when I have dinner in the summer now I eat dinner around the same time every day but you can probably spot some differences in these pictures what do you notice about the sky in the winter compared to the summer now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss okay are you ready maybe you notice that it's darker outside in the winter the sun has already set when I eat dinner but in the summer it's still light the sun hasn't set yet that's because in some places the amount of daylight changes with the seasons there's more daylight in the spring and summer and less in the fall and winter it's a pattern that repeats each Daylight saving time year now imagine you live someplace where the amount of daylight changes with the seasons in summer for instance there's sunlight starting early in the morning so early you might still be asleep in the past that got some people thinking they thought if everyone got up a little earlier they could make use of that morning sunlight and if we did our other activities a little earlier like earlier lunch and earlier dinner we could fit in our evening activities before the sun sets too now daylight after dinner might sound great but imagine if you had to to go around and convince everyone in your town to wake up early that sounds nearly impossible after all everyone's got their own schedule but amazingly that's what daylight saving time is when people set their clocks forward for Spring Daylight Saving Time it's like everyone is agreeing to wake up 1 hour earlier rather than change each person's schedule people in the past realized we could all change our clocks in dead and governments pass laws so that all the clocks in a place would change that way schools start earlier businesses open earlier buses arrive earlier and so on by changing the clocks people can match their daily activities to when there's sunlight in spring and summer and with that sunlight we need fewer lights so we can use less electricity too but maybe you're curious why we Why change clocks again change clocks again again in the fall since fall and winter have less daylight there isn't lots of early morning sunshine to wake up early for so we change our clocks back for those Seasons at least that's the idea behind daylight saving time but here's the thing the amount of sunlight changes slowly over the seasons changing our clocks by an hour doesn't always match up it might still be dark when you wake up in spring or wake too bright when you go to bed in summer and with devices like air conditioners running longer on sunny summer evenings research shows we may use more energy during daylight saving time instead of less changing clocks Changing clocks isnt helpful isn't helpful for everyone's schedule some people are up with the sun in every season While others work at night and changing clocks isn't helpful in every place in some places daylight doesn't change much over the year in fact for a variety of reasons many places around the world don't do Daylight Saving Time some have passed laws to get rid of it including the state governments of Hawaii and Arizona whenever we change our clocks in the spring I feel so tired the next day maybe you do too that's because if you wake up at your usual time you're actually getting an hour less sleep that night and in the Changing clocks twice a year fall when we change our clocks back it's like we get to sleep in an extra hour that I don't mind so much but doctors point out that changing our clocks twice a year throws off our sleep schedule it's confusing for our bodies that can lead to worse health and more accidents it's hard to focus when you're tired that's one reason laws have been proposed that could change daylight saving time in the uned United States we might even stop doing it so in summary daylight saving time was invented to help us match our daily activities to when there's sunlight in different seasons by changing our clocks 1 hour forward we start our days earlier in spring and summer so there will be sunlight for our evening activities too still people debate how well that actually works it's helpful to remember that daylight and darkness follow their own patterns that we can't change changing clocks doesn't change the Sun or make daylight it just changes when people are awake to experience that light that's all for this week's question thanks Julio for asking it now for the next episode we reached Outro into our question jar and picked out three questions sent into us that we're thinking about answering next when this video is done playing you'll get to to vote on one you can choose from why are fourleaf clovers so rare are leprechauns real or why do we wear green on St Patrick's Day so submit your vote when the video is over we want to hear from all of you watching there are Mysteries all around us stay curious and see you next week