Why do we observe daylight savings?
Aotearoa is among the 40% of the world who adjust their clocks seasonally to align with the Earth’s axial tilt.
Our planet’s axis of rotation is tilted 23.44°, which means that as the Earth orbits the sun, hemispheres either lean toward the sun, creating longer summer days, or away in winter which results in shorter daylight hours. To align human activity with peak daylight hours clocks are moved back to bring sunrise times earlier in the morning.
Not everyone partakes in the “spring forward, fall back” observance also known as summertime. Locations closer to the North and South poles experience greater seasonal changes in day length, making them more likely to use daylight savings than equatorial adjacent tropical regions.
Seasonal changes to timekeeping are considered a Kiwi invention. In 1895, entomologist and astronomer George Hudson presented a proposal to the Wellington Philosophical Society that clocks should be changed by two hours every spring, creating more after-hours daylight for insect collecting.
Germany was the first country to officially implement daylight savings in 1916 during World War I, an effort to make better use of daylight and conserve energy.
New Zealand first observed daylight saving time in 1927.
The dates and amounts that clocks go forward and back by have varied over the years, but Aotearoa adopted the current dates – from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April – in 2007.
Proponents say benefits include energy saving and increased usable hours for leisure and recreation.
Critics say the time shifts disrupt our circadian rhythm and sleeping patterns, risking impacting health and mood in the days following the change.