Most of the United States pushed their clocks forward by one hour for Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, and the usefulness of the practice has come into question.

The annual pushing forward of clocks dates back to World War I, according to Quartz, when in 1916, Germany started pushing forward their clocks to conserve energy during World War I. The U.S. followed suit in 1918, and it has been altered a little over the years.

The question is, Does it really save electricity?

Ideally, by moving clocks forward in the spring, human activity at homes would start and end earlier. People would return to their homes when it is still light out and would not have to turn on the lights right away. This would result in energy savings.

Now, studies are showing there is little proof it saves energy.

A study in 2007 looked at two neighboring states in Australia. Victoria extended daylight savings time to help prepare for the 2000 Olympic Games. South Australia did not extend daylight savings time. Through the study they found that energy was saved during the evenings, but then in the mornings it was used more, canceling out any energy savings.

More research was done in Indiana. Until 2006, only certain counties in the state participated in daylight savings time. Researchers looked into 30 years of electricity demand for the counties that did not participate in daylight savings time. They found that daylight savings time actually results in a one percent increase in residential electricity demand.

Trying to explain this, a paper in 2014 in the Journal of  Economic Behavior & Organization says daylight savings time seems to change people's behaviors. They found during daylight savings time people were sleeping for 15-20 minutes less. They then used lights and heating appliances more often.

"Slowly people are realizing that the energy savings is not there," said Alison Sexton, one of the paper's co-authors. "So is there reason to go on?"