Copyright Wilmington News Journal
Should the United States lock the clock? Delaware Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester thinks so and wants to eliminate the biannual adjustment of your clocks. During a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing back in April, Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, talked about the First State pushing to keep daylight saving time and other states wanting to keep standard time. "People across our country, are tired of the constant cycle of 'falling back' and 'springing forward,'" Blunt Rochester said in the hearing. "I mean, who hasn’t forgotten to change the clock on their microwave and felt the immediate panic when you thought you were late to work? ... But in all seriousness, the back and forth between daylight saving time and standard time needs to end. We need to come to a resolution and stick with it." Blunt Rochester pointed out the real impact time change has including disrupting sleep leading to negative health outcomes. The idea isn't new and it might be one area Republicans and Democrats agree. In 2022, the Senate approved bipartisan legislation on unanimous consent to make daylight standard time permanent ‒ and keep the later sunsets ‒ but it stalled in the House. The bill was co-sponsored by then Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida. President Donald Trump announced his push to make standard time year-round ‒ a move that would require action from Congress ‒ in a post on his social media site Truth Social. "The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!" Trump wrote. "Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient and very costly to our Nation." Here's what to know about the end of daylight saving time. When does daylight saving time end in 2025? Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Nov. 2. We gain an hour to accommodate for more daylight in the mornings. What should you do before falling back on Nov. 2? Before you go to bed Nov. 1, you need to change the clocks, moving them back one hour. It's also a good time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. How to adjust to daylight saving time ending The time change will impact your sleep habits. While it's not as drastic as when daylight saving time begins, it still may cause some issues. According to WebMD.com, there are several ways to adjust your habits to make the change to standard time easier. Here are some suggestions: Gradually shift your sleep and wake times before the clocks change. Try to stay up later on Nov. 1. If you need extra help, you could change your clocks earlier. When it's light outside, expose yourself to as much light as possible. When it's dark, cut back on the amount of bright light around you. Try to get exercise during the day. It will help keep you alert and it will help you sleep later. Set up a proper environment for sleeping. Avoid caffeinated beverages and alcohol, have a calming bedtime ritual, create a dark, quiet environment to sleep, and maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Time change problems: Shorter days of fall, winter lead to seasonal affective disorder. What you need to know Why do we fall back for standard time? According to the Farmer's Almanac, the idea was to use daylight better. Moving the clocks back an hour in the fall means we'll have more daylight during winter mornings. In December, the sun will rise between 7:04 a.m. Dec. 1 and 7:23 a.m. Dec. 31. With daylight saving time, we wouldn't see the sun rising until after 8 a.m. Waking up early in December is hard enough; it's even worse without the sun until after 8 a.m. On the good side, we'd have more daylight on the back end as the sun would set between 5:37 and 5:47 p.m. Do all states observe daylight saving time? Apparently, there are a number of people who've already been sleeping that extra hour. Not all states and U.S. territories participate in daylight saving time. Hawaii and Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) do not observe daylight saving time, and neither do the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Why do certain states not observe daylight saving time? Arizona doesn't follow daylight saving time because the state decided there wasn't a good reason to have the sunset an hour later during the hottest months of the year. The only parts of Arizona that do follow daylight saving time are those within the Navajo Nation. Hawaii doesn't follow daylight saving time because of its location near the equator. Since it's so close, the amount of sunlight during the day doesn't vary much during the year. Do all countries observe daylight saving time? We're not alone in falling back and springing forward. Besides the U.S., daylight saving time is observed by other countries in North America, Europe and parts of Africa and Asia in the Northern Hemisphere summer, and in parts of South America and Oceania in the Southern Hemisphere summer, which is the opposite. When does daylight saving time return in 2026? For those wondering when we're going to lose sleep by springing forward, who like not having the extra hour of sleep, daylight savings time returns at 2 a.m. on March 8, 2026, when we spring forward to 3 a.m.
