As August draws to a close and September approaches, many people may be wondering, “When is it time to turn back the clocks?”
Twice a year, people across the country change their clocks. First, they are “set forward” to enjoy an extra hour of daylight during the summer months, and then they are “set back” to standard time during the winter.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, daylight saving time lasts 238 days – about 65% of the year.
This year, daylight saving time began on March 10 and ends on Sunday, November 3. It will begin again on Sunday, March 9, 2025.
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Every year on the second Sunday in March, at 2 a.m., the clocks go forward one hour – to 3 a.m. – marking the start of daylight saving time.
“In the United States, this results in more hours of sunshine in the evenings during the warmest months,” NIST reported.
How popular is the twice-yearly time change?
The time change is rather unpopular.
In a YouGov survey of 1,000 Americans in 2023, 62% of respondents said they no longer want to change their clocks twice a year.
50% of respondents said they would prefer daylight saving time all year round, while 31% wanted standard time all year round. Only 12% said they had no preference, and 7% said they were unsure on the issue.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are many states that want to prevent the time change.
In 2023, there were three bills to establish permanent standard time in Massachusetts, but none passed.
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In total, 75 bills were introduced in 29 states last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, none of these bills became law this year.
Nineteen states – Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – are ready to permanently switch to daylight saving time. But they need congressional approval first.
By 2024, at least 30 states have considered or are in the process of adopting daylight saving time laws. This year alone, 28 bills have been introduced and 36 have been carried over from the last session, NCSL reports.
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Bills to switch to standard time failed in Maine and Virginia earlier this year.
Indiana is currently considering a resolution requiring the entire state to follow a common time zone, since the Northwest and Southwest are in the Central Time Zone, but the rest of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone.
How did daylight saving time come about?
According to National Geographic, Germany and Austria were the first countries to introduce daylight saving time in 1916 to save energy.
In parts of Canada, however, this custom has been practiced for a long time.
According to timeanddate.com, Ontario residents created the first daylight saving time zone in 1908 by setting their clocks forward one hour between July and September.
In 1918, a time change called “Fast Time” was introduced, but it was abolished less than a year later, although cities such as Boston, New York and Pittsburgh continued to use it.
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Daylight saving time was reintroduced in 1942 by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt under the name “war time” and remained in effect until 1945.
Between 1945 and 1966, there were no uniform rules for changing the clocks until the Uniform Time Act was passed in 1966, which created a framework for a nationwide daylight saving time arrangement.
Is standard time better than daylight saving time?
There is some disagreement about what is better: standard time or daylight saving time.
For sleep medicine specialist Karin Johnson of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the research results point to standard time.
She said her research on sleep cycles, conducted with colleagues, shows that having a consistent standard time can improve brain function, mood and concentration, as well as help reduce car accidents and the risk of developing long-term health problems.
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“Time zones were designed so that the sun is as close to the sky as possible at noon,” Johnson said in 2022. “Daylight saving time shifts the clocks an hour, so sunrises and sunsets are later. But unfortunately, our bodies don’t follow time, they follow solar time.”
A Baystate Medical Center spokesperson made it clear in a statement at the time that the medical center does not support Johnson’s views.
“Dr. Johnson’s comments did not reflect Baystate Health, but rather her personal position on this issue as a physician and her involvement in the organization that promotes it,” the statement said.
