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Set clocks back Saturday night

Daylight savings ends Nov. 1

By R. R. Branstrom 2 min read
Beneath the clock at St. Pancras Railway Station in London, England, a neon sign reads "I want my time with you." The 18-foot clock made by Dent London was installed in 2007 when the station was re-outfitted to accommodate High Speed 1, and the neon sign by artist Tracey Emin was hung in 2018 in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Arts. The text is 65 feet wide. (Photo courtesy of Nick Fewings via Unsplash)

DELTA COUNTY -- For almost everyone in the United States, clocks will “fall back” early Sunday morning, giving residents an extra hour of sleep, Halloween partying or whatever they may be doing on Saturday night.

Daylight savings time for 2026 officially ends in the region on Nov. 1 at 2 a.m., when people are expected to change their clocks back an hour to 1 a.m. People refer to this as “gaining an hour,” while “springing ahead” in March causes society to “lose” an hour.

Less than 40 percent of the world’s nations practice daylight savings, which is the practice of setting clocks forward an hour in the spring in anticipation of longer hours of sun. while daylight savings time is in effect, which is from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, those in the Eastern Time Zone run on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) -- which is four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). After that, when daylight savings ends in November, Eastern Time Zone residents move off of EDT and back to Eastern Standard Time (EST), which is five hours behind UTC.

Though debates have raged for years about the benefits and drawbacks of changing clocks twice a year, and many other countries have stopped observing daylight savings, the United States has not proven quite ready to end the practice.

A majority of Americans oppose the bi-annual clock changing, with only 12 percent of the adult population in favor of keeping it, a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed last year. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act -- which would make daylight savings permanent and year-round -- in July, but the bill remains stalled in Congress.

Starting at /week.