“Spring forward, Fall back” is the saying that helps us to remember when we move our clocks forward an hour and when we set them back an hour. Today many of us awoke to find that the time was actually an hour later than we thought it was, making us hurry to get to places that we were meant to be an hour before! Of course, technology has helped with this time changing process as many clocks, phones, and watches reset themselves automatically. Perhaps much of the reason that so many people scramble when the time changes in the spring is because we have lost an hour of sleep during the night!
This year Daylight savings time is also returning to Manitoba a bit earlier than was previously recognized. Clocks across the province should have been set ahead one hour on Sunday at 2am, though most do it before they go to bed for the night. The time change is due to a mandate under the Manitoba Official Time Act, which states for the time shift to begin on the second Sunday of the month and continue this way until the first Sunday in November, which is when standard time is will be observed.
This is just the second year that Manitoba is following the schedule set forth by the Official Time Act. The purpose of the act and its stipulations is to stay aligned with an extension of daylight savings time that was put into effect by the United States government in 2007. Before the 2007 change, Manitoba would set their clocks forward on the first Sunday in April and it would last until the last Sunday in October. The change in dates has a lot of people confused and running to catch up with the day that they partially slept through without knowing.
Many people across the province find that the change in time is actually beneficial as a lot of people suffer from SAD, which is a seasonal disorder where the lack of daylight or sunlight causes people to become depressed or suffer from a lack of energy and direction. This earlier change in time has the added benefit of helping those that suffer from seasonal depression get the daylight that they need to get back to living the lives they want to and simply feeling better about life. This is not a problem that is well understood, but what is known is that longer hours of daylight help.
Plans are for the province to continue to follow the extension of daylight savings time for the foreseeable future. The change adds just a couple weeks to the daylight savings time period, but it makes a difference to businesses, families, and as mentioned above to those that suffer from seasonal depressive disorders. Residents of Manitoba should enjoy the extra daylight hours until the clock “falls back” on the first Sunday in November.