After an extra snowy December, we’ve got good news: One of the first signs of spring is coming even earlier this year.
Daylight Saving Time 2026 starts on Sunday, March 8, at 2 a.m. That’s when we “spring forward” by changing our clocks, turning them an hour ahead.
March 8 is the earliest possible date that DST can begin on the calendar. It’s a day earlier than last year, when Daylight Saving Time 2025 began on March 9.
Daylight Saving Time, also colloquially referred to as “daylight savings time,” starts on the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday of November. We always “spring forward” when DST begins and “fall back” when it ends.
Most digital devices, including computers, TVs and cell phones, will automatically update to the new time at 2 a.m. Any other clocks should be manually changed before going to bed on the night of Saturday, March 7, 2026, turning them ahead a full hour.
For most people, the time change means they’ll “lose” an hour of sleep as Sunday, March 8, will technically be a 23-hour day.
Despite some confusion in recent years, Daylight Saving Time has not become permanent and does not appear to be ending anytime soon. (Making daylight savings permanent would mean the time we change our clocks to in the spring would be year-round, and we wouldn’t turn our clocks back in the fall.)
U.S. Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act last year to “lock the clock” make Daylight Saving Time permanent nationwide. The legislation has stalled in Congress multiple times, largely due to a disagreement over whether to keep standard time or permanent daylight savings time.
President Donald Trump has previously said he’d like to “eliminate daylight saving time,” but admitted it’d be hard to change.
“This should be the easiest one of all, but it’s a 50-50 issue. If something’s a 50-50 issue, it’s hard to get excited. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier, because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark,” Trump said in March. “A lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way, it’s very even. And usually I find when that’s the case − what else do we have to?”
A poll last year found 61% of Americans want to stop changing their clocks twice a year, but some never do.
DST is not observed in Hawaii and most of Arizona, but because the Uniform Time Act mandates Daylight Saving Time, any other state that wants to be exempt from changing its clocks every year must get congressional approval. More than a dozen states, including New York and recently North Dakota, have introduced legislation to make Daylight Saving Time permanent but have not moved forward at the federal level.
“…Studies show that it is the transition out of Daylight Saving Time, which leads to an increase in car accidents, causes more on-site work incidents, and disrupts the health of all who are subject to this time change,” said a New York bill sponsored by New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo (R-47) in 2023. “This bill would, once there is a repeal of the federal law establishing Daylight Saving Time, allow New York to enter into a compact with neighboring states to establish Daylight Saving Time as the state’s year round time.”
According to the Associated Press, gaining an hour tends to be easier for most people than losing it, though everybody’s internal clock still needs to adjust. Studies have found heart attacks and strokes tend to increase right after DST starts in March, while sleep struggles and depression (including seasonal affective disorder) can occur more often in the shorter days of fall and winter.
Daylight Saving Time was first established during World War I to conserve fuel for war industries. The law was repealed after WWI ended, but was re-established by Congress during World War II due to energy consumption and became U.S. law in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, establishing uniform start and end times within standard time zones. The policy, regulated by the Department of Transportation, aims to save energy, reduce traffic fatalities, and reduce crime.
Daylight Saving Time was kept after World War II because Americans were believed to use less energy by extending summer daylight into the evening. However, a 2008 Department of Energy study found that DST reduces annual energy use by just 0.03 percent, and another study by the University of California-Santa Barbara found DST might even increase energy consumption. (Yahoo News)
