Daylight Saving Time arrives early Sunday morning when most Americans will need to spring their clocks forward.
Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am on Sunday, March 12. By springing clocks forward, sunrise and sunset get pushed an hour later, translating to brighter evenings with later sunsets. But because clocks are springing forward at night, you also lose an hour of sleep on Saturday night.
Clocks have been springing forward since March 19, 1918 when the US implemented Daylight Saving Time. The rationale for the time change then revolved around fuel and money savings. But since then, studies show changing clocks may do more financial harm than good. A 2011 study showed that electricity consumption grew as much as 4% after some Indiana counties began observing Daylight Saving Time. Other studies have shown similar results, with the time change costing more as it relates to energy consumption.
While the practice of changing the clocks is fairly standard across the country, it isn’t done everywhere. Both Arizona and Hawaii have opted out of observing Daylight Saving Time. The overseas territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands also do not observe Daylight Saving Time (DST.)
