Twice a year, people across the country change their clocks, first ‘hopping’ to enjoy an extra hour of daylight during the summer months before ‘falling back’ to standard time for the winter.

In just over a week, the clocks will “fall back” as Americans turn the clocks from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Sunday, November 3 – marking the end of daylight saving time and the beginning of standard time.

Daylight saving time will start again on Sunday, March 9, 2025.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), standard time only covers about 35% of the year, as daylight saving time lasts 65% of the year with 238 days.

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Although changing the clock is not very popular, according to NIST it does “have the effect of providing more sunlit hours in the evening during the months when the weather is warmest.

In America, moving the clock back and forth has been practiced for more than a century with a clock change called “Fast Time,” which was first introduced in the US in 1918.

It ended less than a year later, although cities such as Boston, New York and Pittsburgh continued to use it.

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt reintroduced the idea in 1942 under the term “Wartime,” which was in effect until 1945, although there were no uniform rules for changing the clocks until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

Time-changing controversy

Despite the tradition, the practice is not that popular.

A 2023 YouGov survey of 1,000 Americans found that 62% of participants no longer want to change their clocks twice a year.

Half of participants said they preferred daylight saving time year-round, while 31% preferred standard time.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, many states want to stop the clock from changing.

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Last year, three bills were introduced to establish permanent standard time in Massachusetts, but none passed.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 75 bills have been introduced in 29 states in 2023 alone to eliminate clock changing.

None of these bills became law.

Bay Staters aren’t exactly excited about changing the clock either.

Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., along with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., praised their Sunshine Protection Actwhich would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide.

The bill was approved by the Senate last year, but is now stuck in committee, the Washington Post reported.

Ending the annual clock change has popular support, with nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) to a 2021 Economist/YouGov survey saying they support ending daylight saving time.

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However, some sleep experts say that Americans with chronic sleep deprivation could use an extra shuteye.

“There’s a disconnect when we have to get up early for work or school and it’s still dark outside, and we want to sleep,” Beth Malow, professor of neurology and pediatrics and director of the sleep department at Vanderbilt University, told The Hill . the Senate vote in 2022.

The early light of that dawn “actually aligns us so that our body clocks are in sync with what’s happening in our environment,” Malow told the Hill.

Dr. Karin Johnson, a sleep specialist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, found that standard time is the better option for a year-round time change.

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She said her research, complemented by colleagues in the field of sleep cycles, shows that permanent standard time can improve brain functionality, mood and focus and help reduce car accidents and the risk of developing long-term health problems.

“Time zones are designed to have the sun as close to your head as possible at noon,” Johnson said in 2022. “Daylight saving time shifts the clock back an hour so we get later sunrises and sunsets.

“But unfortunately our bodies do not work according to clock time, but according to solar time.”