If that hour you lost last March when we set our clocks ahead one hour is stuck in your craw, take heart, you’re getting it back soon.
Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5. At that time, you’ll need to set your clocks back one hour (remember “fall back”).
Why do we use this system of “spring forward” and “fall back” when it comes to our clocks?
Here’s a look at the history of DST:
How did it get started?
We can blame New Zealand entomologist George Hudson for daylight saving time. He wanted extra hours after work to go bug hunting, according to National Geographic, so he came up with the idea of just moving the hands on the clock.
William Willett, who is the great-great-grandfather of the band Coldplay’s Chris Martin, arrived at the same idea a few years later and proposed moving the clock forward in the spring and back in the fall in his work, “British Summer Time.”
Willett’s idea was picked up a few years later by the Germans, who used it during World War I as a way to save on coal use. Other countries would soon follow suit, most with the idea that it would be a cost-saving measure.
President Woodrow Wilson agreed that DST was a good idea and, in 1918, he signed legislation that would shift the country to the new time system.
Who uses DST?
While most of the country and about 40% of the world use DST, there are some exceptions. Arizona, Hawaii and several U.S. territories don’t fall back or spring forward with DST.
Arizona has not observed DST since 1967, when they filed for an exemption under the DST exemption statute. Hawaii, too, opted out under that exemption. The state has never used DST.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandates the country use daylight saving time but allows states to exempt themselves from the practice and stay on standard time — the local time in a region when DST is not in use.
While states can stay on standard time, they cannot permanently stay on DST.
Confused? You’re in good company. Full-time DST would require an act of Congress to make a change.
Are any states hoping to make the change?
State legislatures have considered at least 550 bills and resolutions in recent years to establish year-round daylight saving time as soon as federal law allows it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Nineteen states have enacted legislation to provide for year-round daylight saving time if Congress were to enact a bill allowing such a change.
The 19 states that have passed laws or resolutions in support of a permanent DST are:
1. Alabama
2. California
3. Colorado
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Idaho
7. Louisiana
8. Kentucky
9. Maine
10. Minnesota
11. Mississippi
12. Montana
13. Ohio
14. Oregon
15. South Carolina
16. Tennessee
17. Utah
18. Washington
19. Wyoming
The U.S. territories of the American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands observe permanent standard time.
