Daylight savings time, also known as DST is a practice that allows advancing clocks on a temporary basis during summer in order to provide more daylight during the afternoons and reduce the daylight in the morning. The modern DST system was first suggested by George Vernon Hudson who was an entomologist from New Zealand and used to collect insects during his leisure time. It was through this activity that he realized the importance of after-hours daylight. A small shift of an hour is done at 02:00 local time, with the clocks being adjusted backward in autumn and forward by an hour in spring.
During autumn the clock is shifted backwards from 02:00 DST to 01:00 standard time, thus making the day 25 hours long where as during spring the clock is taken forward from 02:00 to standard time 03:00 DST, and the day becomes of 23 hours. These clock shifts are performed at midnight on weekends in order to avoid disruption of normal schedules during the weekdays. DST is not observed in places around the equator, Asia and Africa
The concept of DST was proposed to increase outdoor leisure and shopping activities during the sunlight hours of the afternoons leading to a lot of energy saving as the use of artificial lighting is highly reduced during the evenings thus benefitting the economy. However the complexity of the system is one major drawback as people have to remember to change their clocks.
