After a still snowy December, we have good news: one of the first signs of spring is coming even earlier this year.
Daylight Saving Time 2026 begins on Sunday, March 8 at 2 AM. Then we “forward” by changing our clocks, turning them forward one hour.
March 8 is the earliest possible date that DST can begin on the calendar. That’s one day earlier than last year, when DST 2025 started on March 9.
Daylight saving time, also called “summer time”, starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. We always “get ahead” when the time clock starts and “fall back” when it ends.
Most digital devices, including computers, televisions and mobile phones, will automatically update to the new time at 2am. Any other clocks must be manually changed before going to bed on the night of Saturday, March 7, 2026, moving them back a full hour.
For most people, the time change means they will “lose” an hour of sleep, as Sunday, March 8 will technically be a 23-hour day.
Despite some confusion in recent years, daylight saving time hasn’t become permanent, and it doesn’t look like it’s ending anytime soon. (To make daylight savings permanent would mean that the time we change our clocks in the spring would be year-round, and we wouldn’t turn our clocks back in the fall.)
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., reintroduced the Sun Protection Act last year to “lock the clock” to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide. The legislation has stalled in Congress several times, largely because of disagreement over whether to keep standard time or permanent daylight saving time.
President Donald Trump has previously said he would like to “do away with daylight saving time” but admitted it would be difficult to change.
“It should be the easiest of all, but it’s a 50-50 issue. If something is a 50-50 issue, it’s hard to get excited. I guess people would like to have more light later, but some people want more light earlier because they don’t want to send their kids to school in the dark,” Trump said in March. “A lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it another way, it’s very even. And I usually find that when that’s the case — what else do we have to do?”
A survey last year found that 61 percent of Americans want to stop changing their watches twice a year, but some never do.
Daylight saving time is not observed in Hawaii and most of Arizona, but because the Uniform Time Act requires daylight saving time, any other state that wants to be exempt from changing the clocks each year must get approval from Congress. More than a dozen states, including New York and recently North Dakota, have introduced legislation to make daylight saving time permanent, but have not advanced to the federal level.
“…Studies show that it is the transition from daylight savings time that leads to an increase in car accidents, causes more workplace incidents and disrupts the health of everyone subject to this time change,” said a bill in New York sponsored by New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo (R-47) in 2023. York to enter into an agreement with neighboring states to establish daylight saving time as the state time year round.
According to the Associated Press, gaining an hour tends to be easier for most people than losing it, although everyone’s internal clock still needs to adjust. Studies have found that heart attacks and strokes tend to increase just after daylight savings time starts in March, while sleep struggles and depression (including seasonal affective disorder) can occur more often during the shorter days of fall and winter.
Daylight saving time was first established during World War I to save fuel for war industries. The law was repealed after the end of World War I, but was reinstated by Congress during World War II due to energy consumption, and became US law in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, establishing uniform start and end times in standard time zones. The policy, regulated by the Department for Transport, aims to save energy, reduce traffic deaths and reduce crime.
Daylight saving time was kept after World War II because it was believed that Americans used less energy by extending daylight from summer to evening. However, a 2008 Department of Energy study found that DST reduces annual energy use by just 0.03 percent, and another study by the University of California-Santa Barbara found that DST may actually increase energy use.
The New York State Fire Marshal’s Association recommends that people use daylight saving time as a reminder to replace the batteries in their smoke detectors when we switch to and from daylight saving time. The group says 60 percent of home fire deaths occur in homes without working smoke alarms.
Read the original article on syracuse.com.