WASHINGTON — Millions of clocks across the United States reverted to daylight saving time Sunday.

Clocks had to “spring forward” one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2025, causing most people to lose an hour of sleep. We won’t “fall back” to standard time again until Nov. 2, the first Sunday of November, when Americans fiddle with their clocks again.

While daylight saving time has been observed for more than 50 years, many dread the biannual time shift. There have been several efforts by lawmakers to make daylight saving time permanent for all states.

The Sunshine Protection Act, a federal bill first introduced by Republican Florida lawmakers Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now at the helm of the State Department, and Rep. Vern Buchanan in 2018, has never been signed into law despite multiple attempts in Congress. In early January, Florida Sen. Rick Scott reintroduced the measure into Congress.

President Donald Trump expressed interest in ending the biannual practice in a social media post in December, pushing for eliminating daylight saving time. 

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he wrote on Truth Social a month before taking office.

Daylight saving time officially starts Sunday, March 9 at 2 a.m.

Aside from losing an hour of sleep, the time change also means the daunting chore of manually changing clocks. Most electronics nowadays change automatically, but some household appliances still need a manual adjustment. 

Despite more than 50 years of observance, there have been a variety of efforts to change the practice.

The Sunshine Protection Act, a federal bill aimed at making daylight saving time permanent year-round for all states, has been introduced into Congress multiple times. It was first introduced by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Vern Buchanan in 2018. 

Despite multiple efforts, the bill has never been signed into law.

The most progress the Sunshine Protection Act has seen was in March 2022 when it unanimously passed the U.S. Senate. A matching House bill was introduced but died awaiting review in the House. 

In 2023, the bill was introduced once again, but failed to pass in its respective chambers.

Congress is the only one that can change the observance period for daylight saving time. Since 2015, at least 45 states proposed bills to change their observance of DST, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Health experts have said that lawmakers have it backward and that standard time should be made permanent.

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.

The practice has been implemented in some form since World War I when Germany originally introduced it to conserve power and energy by extending daylight hours. 

The Standard Time Act in 1918 was the first introduction of daylight saving time to American clocks. What was then a temporary measure, held the nickname ‘war time,’ and lasted from spring to fall in an attempt to cut energy costs during World War I. The act is also responsible for the five time zones still in place today.

The Department of Transportation was created and given regulatory power over time zones and daylight saving time in 1966. In order to correct confusing and alternating time zones, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 sought a nationwide standard for daylight saving time — from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. 

Few changes have happened since then. Most recently, daylight saving time was extended by a few weeks in 2005 when former President George W. Bush changed the law. It is now observed from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November.

Despite the national observance, Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe daylight saving time. Under federal law, states are allowed to opt out of daylight saving time and remain on standard time but are not allowed to remain on daylight time.

The U.S. has previously implemented daylight saving time year-round twice: Once in World War II for fuel conservation, and once in 1974 as a “trial run” during an energy crisis. 

While there is some belief that daylight saving time reduces electricity consumption, traffic and crime, two studies, one performed in 1975 and one in 2005, when DST was extended, revealed that much of the changes in energy consumption, traffic and crime were “statistically insignificant.” The 2005 study found that each day of extended daylight saving time lowered total national electricity consumption by 0.5%.