Does daylight saving time actually save energy? Daylight saving time was proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a humorous essay from 1784. Daylight saving time returned during World War II, but it wasn’t until 1980 that it became a permanent fixture in Denmark. Winter time, or “standard time,” according to EU Commission regulations, always begins on the last Sunday in October and lasts until the last Sunday in March, when we switch to daylight saving time. These percentages may seem small, but they still represent significant savings due to the country’s enormous overall energy consumption.