Daylight savings time moves the clock to match sunrise and the time we wake up.
I live in the northern hemisphere and the days are shorter in the winter. The sunrise is 8 a.m. on the shortest day (December 21), while sunrise on the longest day (June 21) is 5:45 a.m.
If I’m a farmer and I get up for my chores at 5 a.m. everyday, it’s nice and sunny in the warmer months. By the time it’s October, I wake up well before the sun so I might as well wait another hour. Lots of people had the same idea. Eventually everyone agreed on a day, called it daylight savings time and figured moving the clocks by one hour was simple enough.
But now it’s the 21st century, we have atomic clocks and most people live in the city but it’s hard to break tradition.
It is a common myth in the United States that DST was first implemented for the benefit of farmers.[38][39][40] In reality, farmers have been one of the strongest lobbying groups against DST since it was first implemented.[38][39][40] The factors that influence farming schedules, such as morning dew and dairy cattle’s readiness to be milked, are ultimately dictated by the sun, so the clock change introduces unnecessary challenges.[38][40][41]
TL:DR for the rest of the history and rationale: Most of this was rich people wanting more time for their personal hobbies, other people’s sleep and health be damned.
Daylight savings time moves the clock to match sunrise and the time we wake up.
I live in the northern hemisphere and the days are shorter in the winter. The sunrise is 8 a.m. on the shortest day (December 21), while sunrise on the longest day (June 21) is 5:45 a.m.
If I’m a farmer and I get up for my chores at 5 a.m. everyday, it’s nice and sunny in the warmer months. By the time it’s October, I wake up well before the sun so I might as well wait another hour. Lots of people had the same idea. Eventually everyone agreed on a day, called it daylight savings time and figured moving the clocks by one hour was simple enough.
But now it’s the 21st century, we have atomic clocks and most people live in the city but it’s hard to break tradition.
Per the Wikipedia article:
TL:DR for the rest of the history and rationale: Most of this was rich people wanting more time for their personal hobbies, other people’s sleep and health be damned.