Daylight saving time ending: Do we gain or lose an hour of sleep?

At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday November 3, 2024, most US states will be setting their clocks back one hour. This means that you will gain an additional hour of sleep. For example, if you usually wake up at 8 a.m., your new wake-up time will be 9 a.m. on November 4th. However, it is important to note that this change may make you late for any plans you have for that day.

In most cases, you probably won’t need to wait up to physically set your clock back to 1 a.m. when the hand reaches 2 a.m. On smart devices such as mobile phones (Android or iOS), tablets, desktop PCs running either Windows or macOS... etc. the digital clock will automatically set itself back an hour. So you can stay in bed and enjoy that extra hour.

Spring forward, Fall back

The shift is always done on the weekend, the first Sunday after Halloween, to limit the amount of disruption caused as the majority of people won’t be getting up for work the next day.

Legislation has been passed in the Senate to permanently end the practice through the Sunshine Protection Act, which would effectively end Daylight Saving Time (DST). However, it was not passed in the House of Representatives during the legislative period necessary to become law.

Last fall, a bipartisan group of Senators, who rarely agree on policy, came forward asking for another vote on the bill to take place so that DST can be eliminated once and for all. But for now, they have never been signed into law.

Residents in some states will not be changing their clocks

There have been calls across the US to end the practice of changing the hours twice a year, with clocks going forward an hour on the second Sunday in March and back an hour on the first Sunday in November. Nineteen states have introduced legislation to do away with the twice-yearly switch, but the authority to do so has been reserved by the Department of Transportation since 1966.

The only parts of the US that do not have DST are some areas of Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

Arizona experimented with the change beginning in 1918 but decided to opt out of the Daylight Savings Time in 1968 permanently. Although the state observes Standard Time, the Navajo Nation, a Native American territory in the northeast of the state, which also crosses over into New Mexico and Utah, does make the twice-a-year time shift.

Thanks to their position near the equator, Hawaii, along with the other US territories in the Pacific and Puerto Rico. Since they are close enough to the equator that there is no significant difference in sunrise and sunset times across the year, there are no benefits from changing the hour.

Does the European Union practice Daylight Saving Time?

Yes. The European Union member states change their clocks one week before the United States, meaning that for a short period, the time difference between the two areas is one hour less than it is typically.

Typically, clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October. So for example this year, European clocks went back on Sunday 27 October.

In Europe, (DST) starts at the same time as in the US, on the last Sunday in March. The practice was first introduced in Europe in 1916 by Germany in a bid to reduce coal consumption. The United States followed suit in 1918. It was phased out after the First World War but reintroduced in the mid-70s as a consequence of the oil crisis.