Is Daylight Savings Costing You Money?

Daylight savings came this week, earning people that extra hour they lost in the spring season. While this half of the daylight savings system might make most people happy, there’s no denying that daylight savings isn’t loved universally by all. Some of the biggest advocates against daylight savings claim that the sudden shift of the clock can actually cause you to spend more money.

According to Time, when people set their clocks back to provide more daylight at the end of the day, they’re more likely to go out at night to spend cash they wouldn’t otherwise be wasting. The inverse of that problem is that daylight savings helps many business who operate in the field of recreation. This information is based on the research of Michael Downing, a professor at Tufts University and the author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Savings. He explains that people will use daylight savings to provide more business to various tourist industries and devote more time to recreational shopping.

“Since 1915, the principal supporter of daylight saving in the United States has been the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of small business and retailers,” said Michael Downing. “The Chamber understood that if you give workers more sunlight at the end of the day they’ll stop and shop on their way home.”

While daylight savings might be providing a much needed boost to certain parts of the economy, it could ultimately do some damage to your wallet.

There might be some other drawbacks to daylight savings as well. According to AJC, an extra hour of light during daylight savings results in more air conditioner use, which leads to poorer energy conservation and raises the consumer’s bill.

There are even some health risks to daylight savings, including a 10 percent increase in the risk of a heart attack during the days after setting the clocks forward in spring. This could be a result of sleep deprivation. This side-effect of daylight savings could also result in an increase of headaches and depression. However, the fall end of daylight savings is much easier on the body. So people can enjoy the extra sleep for now.

The U.S. states Arizona and Hawaii have already done away with daylight savings, with a few movements in other states pushing for its abolition as well. Where do you stand on the daylight savings issue? Does the idea of daylight savings costing you more money surprise or upset you?