Well I hear that it all started with the farmers. They moved one hour from the morning hours to the evening hours. It gave them more time to work in the fields. But the truth is, this time changing habit didn't become a regular practice until WWs I and II. It was done in an effort to have more daylight for war production - so out the window with the farmer idea! The problem here was that times were so different in each city that congress decided to standardize it in 1966. Now everyone did it together.
So then, what is the point? For the daylight savings, there have been studies that energy was actually saved by having more daylight at the end of the day than in the morning. They say that energy consumption is related to when we go to bed! OK - that makes a little sense. Problem here - many of us are up before the sun with this new time. So on go the lights and the TVs and stereos - and computers. So where is the energy saving now? We use it in the AM instead of the PM. When I get home I relax with a glass of wine and read! And the closer you are to the equator, the less sense it makes.
And then there is "falling back" in November. Why? We just got used to this new time to save daylight for the afternoon and use up energy in the morning. Why do we switch back? Do we really gain an hour? Of course not. It just feels that way because we now need to reset our body clocks - again.
Oh well - now off I go to use up energy in the dark morning hours to get ready for work.