Did You Remember to ‘Fall Back’?

If you find you seem to be running early today — you know, spending a lot of time waiting for things to get started — you might want to consider this question:

Did you set your clocks back an hour before you went to bed on Saturday night?

Yes, it’s that time of year — daylight saving time has come to an end. In fact, it did so precisely at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. That means an extra hour of sleep or, if you forgot, getting to the places you intend to go today an hour early.

That means were back to standard time for the next four months or so — daylight saving time does not return again until 2 a.m. March 9, 2014.

By the way, mankind has been adjusting its schedule to the changing lengths of the day as seasons pass for a very long time. Before there were clocks, people adjusted their schedules to the ebb and flow of daylight as the seasons changed. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that a standardized method was suggested — by a bug collector in New Zealand. Read more about the history of daylight saving time in Wikipedia.

One more thing: Public safety officials like to use the change to standard time in the fall (and the change to daylight saving time in the spring) to remind people to practice safety by:

• Checking the batteries in your smoke alarms.