Daylight Saving Time 2024 Is Coming: When The Clocks Go Back

As the weather cools down, it’s time to turn back the clocks and prepare for a dark afternoon. Get ready to bust out Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time, the unofficial anthem for the annual daylight saving time ritual.

The return to standard time occurs in the fall and involves turning the clocks back an hour — making it the motto of “fall back.”

It can be a nightmare as people across the country change clocks and try to adjust to the new schedule. Here’s what you need to know about the fall season change.

When does daylight saving time end?

In the US, DST ends on the first Sunday of November at 2 am local time. For 2024, that will fall on November 3. Set a reminder on your calendar to change any clocks that don’t change. Many people find it better to change the clocks before going to bed than to change the clocks the next morning. As you make calendar updates, pencil in Sunday, March 9, for the start of DST in 2025.

It’s a little different around the world — in the UK, daylight saving time ends tomorrow, Oct. 27, and on the other side of the world where it’s been a year, daylight saving time is already started, and the clocks go forward. hour on Oct. 6 in most of Australia. Here is a working list of countries that observe DST, even when it ends and starts in 2024.

Standard time vs. daylight saving time

The time frame in America has a long and complicated history. The growth of railroads in America led to the creation of time zones in 1883. DST was officially introduced in 1918, but it went in and out of favor and was used inconsistently throughout the country until the Uniform Time Act of 1966. With transportation improvements, this act imposed standard time within existing time zones and established a permanent uniform DST system, in including the dates and times of the biannual changes,” the Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in a history of time zones.

See also: Does Daylight Saving Time Help With Energy Debts?

Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii are in regular season year-round. The entire country has to deal with the impact of the bi-annual clock changes. It’s not just the sleep schedule that can be painful. There are many ways that the DST change affects your life.

The exact days of DST and standard time may change from year to year. Daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. The National Institute of Standards and Technology released figures and reports that DST is in effect for 238 days, or about 65% of the year. That might make DST seem more standard than standard time, but we’re stuck in historical terms.

Will we ever get rid of time changes?

Time changes cause controversy. Many people struggle to make the transition, especially when an hour disappears during daylight saving time. Here are some ways to restore your rest after losing an hour of sleep. Proponents of DST say it conserves energy in warmer months and provides longer “useful” daylight hours for outdoor activities. However, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called for a standard year-round time to better align with human circadian biology.

Politicians have made efforts to end the time changes across the country, but nothing has made it into law, and there is debate over whether daylight saving time or standard time would be better. The U.S. Senate has passed the Solar Protection Act — a bipartisan bill that would make solar panels permanent — in 2022, but that’s as far as it goes. “This tradition of changing the time twice a year is stupid,” Sen. Marco Rubio, co-sponsor of the bill, said in 2023. Rubio continues to push for the legislation, but it shows no signs of moving forward in 2024.

Dealing with the fall season change

The shift to “falling back” is often seen as a positive because it seems like you’re getting an extra hour of sleep. That only works if you can ignore your normal wake up time and go to bed on Sunday.

Check out these tips to combat post-season fatigue. Building good sleep habits shouldn’t just be reserved for seasonal changes. Work on a healthy sleep schedule year-round, and those pesky clocks won’t get you down much. Unless Congress gets in on the act, we’re stuck going forward in the spring and going backwards for the foreseeable future.

When will daylight saving time return?

Are you sick of the early darkness? The long night reaches its climax soon, on December 21, in the winter solstice. After that, it will begin to gradually improve each afternoon until daylight saving time returns in the US on March 9, 2025.

Daylight saving returns to the UK on March 30 and ends in Australia on April 6.