Daylight saving time is ending soon. Here's when to set your clocks back

With Halloween in our rear-view mirror and cold weather settling in across Central Texas, the question remains: When will we turn clocks back an hour for the sunset of daylight saving time?

Ending annually on the first Sunday in November, daylight saving time will stop this year on Nov. 6. When the clock strikes 2 a.m., the time will revert to 1 a.m.

While the human-instituted time change has zero effect on when the sun rises and sets, the "additional" hour is meant to help people better use natural light earlier in the day after originating as a way to help conserve energy during daylight hours.

Daylight saving (not savings) time begins the second Sunday in March, when clocks spring forward an hour.

History of daylight saving time

Credited with the first, albeit satirical, mention of a daylight conserving time system, Benjamin Franklin’s “An Economical Project" in 1784 reasoned that people should wake with the sun to conserve candles.

"Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing: and if that is not sufficient, let cannon be fired in every street to wake the sluggards effectually," Franklin wrote.

For people who could not see the light of the idea, Franklin reasoned that those who rise at 4 a.m. would have no issue being back in bed at a reasonable time of 8 p.m.

It was not until the early 1900s that advocacy for a daylight saving system began to gain traction. Shortly after the onset of World War I, Germany, followed by Great Britain, began light saving measures for an additional hour of daylight and an attempt to save fuel and heating costs on their home fronts.

In 1918, the United States was still new to the war and eager to be on the same timetable as her allies and foes, eventually leading Congress to approve the first daylight saving time change on March 31, 1918, at 2 a.m.

“Uncle Sam, your enemies have been up and are at work in the extra hour of daylight — when will YOU wake up?” propaganda posters across the country said.

Will daylight saving time ever be permanent?

Now, however, not every state in the union participates in the annual time change, as both Hawaii and Arizona opted out based on a fairly consistent relationship with the sunshine on the islands and the heat in the desert.

Additionally, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa do not practice daylight saving time.

Over the past five years, 19 states, not including Texas, have passed legislation or resolutions seeking to make daylight saving time the standard time in their states. However, those legislative goals are contingent on changes at the federal level, which may come sooner rather than later.

Passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in March, a bill by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, would cancel daylight saving time and the hour switch on Nov. 5, 2023. Instead of shifting back an hour at 2 a.m., as the country has for a century, the moment would pass and lead to 2:01 a.m. with no further adjustments in the future.

“The good news is that we can get this passed. We don't have to keep doing this stupidity anymore. Why we would enshrine this in our laws and keep it for so long is beyond me," Rubio said upon the bill's passage in the Senate.

The House has not yet taken up the measure.

So, for now, don't forget to turn your clock back an hour come 2 a.m. Nov. 6.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Daylight saving time 2022: When will clocks fall back?