What daylight saving time says about people and progress

March 30th: the day we lose an hour of sleep and pretend we’re fine.

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Yes, daylight saving time is kicking in. Again. And while it’s tempting to roll our eyes and sip another coffee, DST actually opens up a pretty fascinating conversation, not just about clocks, but about how we relate to time in a world that’s constantly changing.

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🕰 So… where did this idea even come from?

Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t invented created to help farmers.

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One of the earliest advocates of daylight saving was George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, who proposed the idea in 1895 — simply because he wanted more daylight after work to collect insects. 🐞

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At first, the idea wasn’t widely embraced. But during World War I, the tides shifted: in 1916, Germany became the first country to actually implement DST as a way to conserve fuel.

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Soon after, England and the U.S. jumped on board, and just like that, we were all changing our clocks… because of war. And bugs. Mostly bugs.

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Over time, it became a global attempt to match daylight hours with daily routines — especially in an industrial world.

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Time zones, calendars, business hours — they were all human inventions to bring structure to chaos. But now, we live in a time where “asynchronous” work is normal, your phone updates the time without asking you, and AI doesn’t care what time it is — it works when you don’t.

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So, in a tech-driven world where we can automate, sync, and simulate nearly anything… It’s worth asking: is this still the best way to structure time?

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What science (and tech) tells us

- Losing one hour of sleep affects us more than we think, from increased health risks to a dip in focus and mood.

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- Industries like retail and hospitality do benefit from extra evening light, with more foot traffic and outdoor activity.

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- And yes, your body needs a few days to adjust. Our internal clocks aren’t big fans of sudden changes.

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Time is one of the most human constraints we have. We’ve built time zones, calendars, and 9-to-5 schedules to give structure to our days.

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But innovation often challenges those structures — remote work, async teams, smart tech, global tools — they’ve all pushed us to think differently about how and when we work.

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So daylight saving time is more than just a clock shift. It’s a small reminder that progress is about more than efficiency, it’s about how we adapt.

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We can automate systems, scale ideas, and build smarter tools — but people still move through the world in rhythms.

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So, what team are you?

Team More Daylight ☀️ or Team Stop Messing With My Sleep 😴?

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Either way, don’t forget to be gentle with yourself. One hour isn’t much — but for your brain and body, it’s a shift.

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Happy daylight saving. Or at least, brighter evenings ahead.