Copyright NBC 5 Chicago
Daylight saving time is ending this weekend, giving Americans an extra hour of sleep and requiring them to change clocks. The twice-yearly time change is somewhat controversial, with calls to either make daylight saving time permanent or to eliminate it entirely. Those efforts remain largely stalled out, but here’s what you need to know about the ins and outs of the time change, and when you’ll have to spring your clocks forward again in a few months. When does daylight saving time officially end? After nearly eight months, daylight saving time is coming to an end this weekend. According to federal law, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday of November, with the time change officially occurring at 2 a.m. this Sunday. Clocks will roll back an hour, giving residents of nearly every state an extra hour of sleep. How long will days keep getting shorter? The Chicago area hit an interesting milestone on Saturday, as the latest sunrise of the year took place at approximately 7:23 a.m. Sunday the clocks will roll back and sunrise will retreat to 6:24 a.m., and while those sunrises will keep occurring later for a few more weeks, it won’t get back to the 7:23 a.m. mark. On November 10, Illinois will see fewer than 10 hours of daylight for the first time since January 30. By the end of November the state will be seeing just nine hours and 23 minutes of daylight, with the area still losing around 90 seconds of daylight per day. The earliest sunset of the year will occur in early December when the sun dips below the horizon at approximately 4:19 p.m. By the time the winter solstice rolls around on December 21, Illinois will have just over nine hours of daylight, and the sun will rise at 7:15 a.m. and set at 4:22 p.m. From there, days will slowly begin to get longer, though it will be hard to notice at first, as Illinois will only be gaining a couple of seconds of daylight per day. When will daylight saving time be back? Daylight saving time will only be gone for just over four months, as it will return on Sunday, March 8, 2026. Will daylight saving time ever be abolished? There have been alternating pushes to get rid of daylight saving time entirely, or to make daylight saving time permanent, with the Sunshine Protection Act serving as a vehicle to make DST the new standard time. That bill was introduced again in the Senate, but the measure has not been debated. The measure had passed the Senate in 2022, but was never taken up by the House. Under the Uniform Time Act, states can opt out of daylight saving time, as Arizona and Hawaii do, but states cannot make daylight saving time permanent. More than a dozen states have passed legislation that would establish permanent daylight saving time if the federal government allows it, including California, Texas, Florida and Minnesota, among others. Illinois and Indiana have not passed legislation that would permit them to go to permanent daylight saving time. Most sleep experts have argued for the opposite approach, instead seeking to make standard time permanent across the United States. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine is one of several groups advocating for that change, citing safety and health concerns. “The switch to daylight saving time in the spring may seem harmless, but the reality is far more complicated,” said Jay Pea, co-chair of the coalition and president of Save Standard Time. “It disrupts our body clocks, affects our sleep quality, and increases the risk of avoidable health and safety incidents, such as motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular events, and even workplace errors in the days following the time change. Adopting permanent standard time, on the other hand, offers a better solution for year-round well-being.”
