The end of daylight saving time in 2024 is finally here. This weekend, the clocks will be turned back one hour and an extended period of darkness will begin, arriving at 5 p.m.

Daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 2 a.m., after which the clocks “go back” one hour and, in theory, give us an extra hour of sleep.

The amount of daylight has continued to decrease slightly every day since summer began on June 20. The last sunset later than 6 p.m. in New Jersey through March occurred last week. After the clocks turn back, the next sunset after 5 p.m. in New Jersey won’t occur until mid-January.

The amount of daylight continues to decrease each day until December 21, when the winter solstice arrives at 4:19 a.m. and marks the official start of winter. The length of the days will then begin to increase until the summer solstice on June 20, 2025.

The downside is that the sun will rise about an hour earlier each morning after we return to standard time this weekend.

On Saturday, sunrise in New Jersey is at approximately 7:29 a.m. and sunset is at approximately 5:53 p.m. The next day the sun rises at 6:30 am, but sets at 4:52 pm

Clocks officially drop from 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November to 1 a.m

Daylight saving time started on Sunday, March 10, 2024 and ends on Sunday – a period of 238 days. Since 2007, it has lasted from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

We then move the clocks forward to March 9, 2025 – 126 days after we turn them back. Daylight saving time in 2025 ends on November 2, 2025.

The concept dates back more than a century ago when English architect William Willett proposed the idea of ​​changing the clocks in 1907 in ‘The Waste of Daylight’. The suggestion to use daylight more efficiently can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin.

During a visit to Paris in 1784, he wrote a letter to the editor of the ‘Journal of Paris’ calling for a tax on every Parisian whose windows were closed after sunrise to ‘enhance the economy of using sunshine instead of candles to encourage,” said Michael. Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.”

Daylight saving time became widespread in the US when the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was passed. At the time, daylight saving time ran from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October and states were allowed to opt out.

In 1986, daylight saving time was changed from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. The most recent revision took effect in 2006 when the Energy Policy Act of 2005 revised daylight saving time from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time. The time change is also not observed in the US territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands. It wasn’t until 2006 that all of Indiana began observing daylight saving time.

Eighteen states have passed legislation to make daylight saving time permanent. California voters have voted to allow daylight saving time year-round. However, these changes require federal approval.

In March 2022, the U.S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would put an end to changing the clocks twice a year. However, the US House of Representatives did not vote on it.

A handful of provinces in Canada — most of them in Saskatchewan and the Yukon — have implemented permanent daylight saving time, as have parts of British Columbia and two communities in northwestern Ontario.

About 70 countries use summer time. Most of North America, Europe and parts of South America and New Zealand adhere to it, while China, Japan, India and most other countries do not.

It starts on different dates elsewhere. For example, in Europe, daylight saving time starts on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October.