Daylight saving time comes to an end soon. Here's when we fall back (2025)

Daylight saving time is going to end soon, meaning soon it will start to get dark at what many have argued is an inconveniently early time.

In the fall, clocks "fall back" an hour as a holdover from war times. DST was first enacted by the federal government on March 19, 1918, as a measure to save on fuel costs during World War I by adding an extra hour of sunlight to the day, according to the Library of Congress.

But DST didn't become federal law until1966, with passage of theUniform Time Act.It established DST from the last Sunday of April through the last Sunday of October.

The law has since been tweaked — including a year-round DST period ordered by Congress during the 1973 oil embargo from January 1974 to April 1975 to study its effects on energy consumption. But after public outcry, it was quickly amended to allow for a return to standard time during the winter months.

In 2007, DST was extended to its present form, from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday of November.

Here's what to know about when to turn those clocks back.

When is the end of daylight saving time?

It will end on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024 at 2 a.m.

Do you lose or gain an hour?

At 2 a.m. on Nov. 3, the clocks will change back to 1 a.m. You will gain an extra hour.

In the spring, clocks spring ahead one hour.

When does daylight saving time start again?

We will spring forward one hour on Sunday, March 9, 2025.

When will the sun rise in Massachusetts at 7 a.m. or later in 2024?

By Halloween on Oct. 31, the sun will be rising at 7:16 a.m. Of course, the later the sunrise, the deeper we are into the fall season.

Here's a look at sunrise times for the next 10 days, according to suntoday.org, and how many hours of daylight we'll have.

Is daylight savings time going away?

In 2022, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. were among several senators to co-sponsor the Sunshine Protection Act, filed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., which would make daylight saving time (DST) permanent. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

"Studies show that extending DST year-round would have positive impacts on public health, the economy, and would cut energy consumption," Markey stated on his website.

Whitehouse: Will RI support making DST permanent?

“Many people spend all winter looking forward to that March weekend when we ‘spring forward.’ But Rhode Islanders shouldn’t have to wait to enjoy more afternoon daylight in the coldest months," Whitehouse said in a prepared statement in 2023. "I’m working to build consensus in Congress to free us all from adjusting our clocks twice a year, and I believe making Daylight Saving Time permanent is the best route forward.”

The 117th Congress ended without a House of Representatives vote, which would then needed to be followed by a signature from President Joe Biden.

The bill hasn't seen any movement since 2023, so it would need to be re-introduced to Congress.

It isn't just the federal government that has been mulling a change. According to the Bureau of Transportation, 29 states — including Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont — introduced legislation between 2015 and 2019 to "abolish the twice-yearly switching of clocks."

Is there medical benefit to daylight saving time?

In 2023, Dr. Anthony Izzo, medical director of sleep at St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester told the USA Today Network that the twice-a-year time change is "a relic of a bygone age."

Rather than make DST permanent, Izzo said many sleep doctors instead favor that standard time — the period that starts on Nov. 3 — be permanent. He said moving to year-round DST would have serious effects.

"From March to September (when we spring forward), we all want to stay up a little later but when we do that, we are losing an average of 21 minutes of sleep" during that time period, Izzo explained. "We want to stay up later, but we don't get to get up any later."

He added at the time that a change to permanent DST would also result in darkness in the morning hours during the work and school commute.

"I certainly don't want my 9-year-old waiting outside in the dark for the school bus," he said, noting a permanent switch to DST would result in people "going to school and work in darkness for one-third of the year."

Izzo pointed out in the interview last year that as clocks change in March each year, he sees an uptick in incidents the day after the switch in the spring.

"We always see that is the day with the highest number of car crashes in the United States," he said. "Strokes also go up 9% the day after, and there is a 24-50% increase in heart attacks."

Why do people have such trouble with time changes? Izzo pointed to circadian rhythms. Put simply, "the whole nation basically gets jet-lagged. And we all know how crummy we feel when that happens."