When does Daylight Saving Time Begin in 2011?

Or, the question is, when does Standard Time end?

The answer: it depends.

The United States, Canada and some other countries (such as Saint Pierre & Miquelon and Turks & Caicos Islands) extended Daylight Savings Time in 2007. The new start date for DST is the second Sunday in March (previously the first Sunday in April) through to the first Sunday in November (previously the last Sunday in October).

That is March 13, 2011.

You can thank (or blame) President Bush for signing into law a broad energy bill that extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks starting in 2007. Those four extra weeks were supposed to bring massive savings in energy bills. Did they? Or did I.T. consultants make a few extra bucks like Y2K?

But now that I’m in Italy, Daylight Savings begins on March 27, 2011 (the last Sunday in March). In fact, since 1996, European Summer Time is standard across the EU. The United Kingdom may switch to Single Double Summer Time, which would move the UK to UTC+1 in the winter time and UTC+2 during the summer time!

So for two weeks, the time difference to North America and Europe will be off by an hour! So watch those conference calls!

Exceptions to the Rule in North America (and elsewhere)

In Canada, the majority of Saskatchewan and parts of north-eastern British Columbia do not observe DST but instead stay on “standard time” all year long.

In the USA, Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the USA that do not observe DST.

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Russia has moved their entire country one hour ahead, in effect, a Daylight Savings Time throughout the year. The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia introduced a draft bill that moves Russia to the international system of time zones (i.e. Standard Time plus one hour), the same system that worked for the USSR from 1930 to 1981.

Other unusual DST in the northern hemisphere for 2011 are:

Cuba
DST starts Sunday, March 13 – DST ends Sunday, October 30

Egypt
2009: DST starts Friday, April 29 – DST ends Friday, September 30

Iran
DST starts Tuesday, March 22 – DST ends Thursday, September 22 (always on the 22nd)

Iraq
No DST in 2011

Israel
DST starts Friday, April 1 – DST ends Sunday, October 2

Jordan
DST starts Friday, April 1– DST ends Friday, October 28

Morocco

No DST in 2011

Russian Federation

DST starts March 27, but does not end this year

Pakistan
No DST in 2011

Syria
DST starts Friday, April 1– DST ends Friday, October 28

Effects Similar to Time Zone Travels by Air

The one hour time difference, either from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time, or traveling though several time zones makes a difference on your sleep patterns. At least temporarily.

Daylight Savings Time will create an adjustment period, similar to long distance travel (cross country or overseas), as it could take up to one day per time zone traveled. My advice is to try to fight it right away, even if it means a few groggy mornings. It’s really mind over matter.

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Effects of Sleep

I already wrote about the Humans’ Natural Circadian Rhythm Disrupted By Daylight Savings Time several years ago.

If you feel 8 hours of sleep makes you a zombie, be sure to read The Best Method to Sleep using your REM cycle and understand why 6, 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep is better.

Or, in my case, how I survive on 6 hours of sleep or sometimes 4.5 hours a night!