Daylight saving time

Daylight saving time or daylight savings time, abbreviated DST, is a term used for a system intended to "save" daylight. (It is also known as summer time in both Britain and Europe.) The official time is adjusted forward, usually one hour from its official standard time, remaining that way for the duration of the spring and summer months. This is intended to provide a better match between the hours of daylight and the active hours of work and school. DST is also a kind of Energy Conservation measure, as it allows more efficient use of natural sunlight resource in summer time. (People go to bed and wake up earlier, which reduces use of electric lights.) DST is most commonly used in temperate regions, due to the considerable variation in the amount of daylight versus darkness across the seasons in those regions.

Note that the term commonly used in the United States, daylight savings time, has been criticized by some commentators as being incorrect, for both historic (the name as provided by the act which inaugurated it in the United States is daylight saving time) and grammatical reasons. See below for more.