WASHINGTON (AP) — Standard time comes to an end in most parts of the United States this weekend.
You'll lose an hour of sleep for one night but gain more daylight in the evening in the months ahead.
The transition to daylight saving time is official at 2 a.m. local time Sunday across much of the country. Then on March 20, winter sunsets and spring is sprung.
Until daylight saving time ends in the wee hours of Nov. 5, the sun will rise later in the morning than than it has during standard time but it will stay light for longer until the evening.
It's a good idea to set clocks an hour ahead before bed Saturday night.
No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
A poll conducted in October 2021 found that most people in the United States want to avoid switching between daylight saving and standard time, though there is no consensus behind which should be used all year.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 25% of those questioned said they preferred to switch back and forth between standard and daylight saving time. Forty-three percent said they would like to see standard time used during the entire year. Thirty-two percent said they would prefer that daylight saving time be used all year.
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Free smoke alarms
The Chattanooga Fire Department will distribute free smoke alarms on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the 5400 block of Dayton Boulevard as a reminder that time change is also a good time to change home alarms and batteries.
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For those who may not know the backstory on the time-changing occurrence, we’ve gathered some notable facts about daylight saving time:
The tradition started with bug hunting
In 1895, George Hudson, New Zealand entomologist, thought up the modern concept of daylight saving time. He proposed a two-hour time shift, so he'd have more after-work hours of sunshine to go bug hunting in the summer, according to National Geographic. He presented his idea to the Wellington Philosophical Society, but it didn't have any legs until British builder William Willett suggested a similar concept in 1905. His idea would be presented to the British Parliament in 1909. Still, that practice would not officially become standard in the United Kingdom until 1916.
Germany was the first country to observe daylight saving time
On April 30, 1916, Germany embraced daylight saving time to conserve electricity, according to History.com. Weeks later, the United Kingdom followed suit and introduced “summer time.”
It’s ‘saving’ not ‘savings’
Though many people add an ‘s’ at the end of saving when writing and talking about it, the term is daylight saving time.
It’s been a law in the U.S. since 1966, but its origins date to 1918
The law “to save daylight” was passed by Congress in 1918. After World War I, however, state governments were left to decide whether they wanted to continue with the time change.
The law resurfaced during World War II, but again, after the war, the time change decision was left to each state. Some states kept it, and others abandoned it.
Daylight saving time didn’t officially become a law until 1966, under the Uniform Time Act.
Congress did not decree the March and November daylight saving time slots until 2007. In that year, daylight saving time started the second Sunday in March and ended the first Sunday of November.
Not every U.S. state recognizes daylight saving time
Though it’s become an international practice, there are a few places in the United States that do not observe daylight saving time. It is not observed in Hawaii and some areas in Arizona.
Rich Barak of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.