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Does Daylight Saving Time actually save any daylight?

Dr. Sally Ibrahim, a pediatric and adult sleep specialist at University Hospitals, explains the health affects of daylight saving time especially on families with News 5.

By: Katie McGraw

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Whether you like it or not, tonight is the night. Standard time ends (EST) and daylight saving time (EDT) begins this weekend!

Although congress is working to end the practice of changing the clocks and doctors say it is bad for our health, the clocks are changing again at 2 a.m. Sunday. We will lose one hour of March 12 when the time jumps from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. and daylight saving time begins. The sun will be up an hour later and set an hour later on Sunday.

But does this actually save any daylight?

For many years, the idea was that by making use of available daylight, we would save energy by not using candles/lightbulbs etc. But technically there is no real way to save daylight. Due to our latitude, regardless of what the clock says, we will have about 11 hours and 45 minutes of daylight on Sunday. Winter will always feature less daylight in northeast Ohio. We will continue to see more and more daylight due to the seasons changing. During March, daylight increases by nearly 3 minutes every single day! We will continue to see more hours with the sun until summer begins.

There is something to keep in mind, if The Sunshine Protection Act is passed as it is written, permanent daylight saving time (EDT) would take effect. If that was to occur, on the first day of winter/shortest day of the year for the northern hemisphere, Cleveland's sunrise would not be until nearly 9 a.m.!