<P> Daylight saving time (abbreviated DST), also sometimes erroneously referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months so that evening daylight lasts longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times . Typically, regions that use daylight saving time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring and adjust them backward in the autumn to standard time . </P> <P> American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784 . He wrote an essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light" to the editor of The Journal of Paris, suggesting, somewhat jokingly, that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning, making use of the natural morning light instead . New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of daylight saving in 1895 . The German Empire and Austria - Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30, 1916 . Many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s . </P>

When was daylight savings time started and why