In the wee hours of Sunday morning, March 8, millions of clocks will automatically move ahead one hour as the United States, at least much of it, moves into daylight saving time for another year.
If you’ve been following my musings over the years, you know that I am not a fan of the “changing of the clocks.” I would rather we stick with one of these times, preferably just permanent daylight saving time.
By moving the clocks forward one hour, later sunsets return, moving from 5:34 p.m. this Sunday, March 1 to 7:09 p.m. by month’s end. If you are a morning person, you might not be a fan of daylight saving time because it means we’re back to sunrises after 7 a.m. for a little while.
Daylight saving time returns on the second Sunday in March, when our clocks “spring forward” one hour.Boston Globe
To illustrate how quickly this daylight is going to grow when we do flip the clocks ahead for that hour, there will be about 11 hours and 34 minutes of daylight (on March 8). By the time we get to the end of March, we’re going to gain about another hour, for a total of 86 minutes of more daylight for the month. And we’ll still have nearly three more hours to go heading into the summer solstice, June 21.
Daylight gained during March across New England.Boston Globe
Just another marker of spring
Whether you have a love or hate relationship with the time change, the reality is this is just another marker of the spring season. Solar spring, which heralded the three months of greatest daylight gain, started on Feb. 6, and meteorological spring starts with the beginning of March on Sunday.
Of course, astronomical spring starts on March 20, the spring equinox.
And already we’re hearing small signs of this transition season between winter and summer. Before March 8 arrives, you’re going to hear birdsong more frequently in the morning.
How did daylight saving time start?
After first introduced during World War I to save energy, daylight saving time became standardized and the law of nearly all of the land with the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Interestingly, we now switch the clocks even earlier than we did from 1987-2006, by a couple of weeks, so the time we’re on standard time is even shorter than it was 20 or so years ago. In 2007, DST was changed to start on the second Sunday in March.
Today, every state, except Hawaii and most of Arizona, observes the tradition. The U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also do not observe the practice.
Is it time for a permanent DST?
Over the past several years, the idea of ending the time-change ritual for good has gained traction in the US.
The Sunshine Protection Act, which aims to eliminate the twice-yearly clock changes by putting the country permanently on daylight saving time, was introduced several years back, but there have been challenges. The bill has been reintroduced in the House and Senate since 2018 and nearly every time has died in committee. Despite unanimous support from the Senate in 2022, the bill was not able to clear the House of Representatives. In January 2025, another version of the bill was introduced and remains before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. President Trump has voiced support for the change.
But not everyone is on board. The American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine agree it’s time to do away with time switches, but they say sticking with standard time year-round aligns better with the sun — and human biology — for more consistent sleep.
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