(NEXSTAR) — The sun is setting earlier, the breeze is feeling cooler, and the leaves have nearly all fallen. That can only mean one thing: daylight saving time is coming to an end.
The U.S. has been changing the clocks twice a year since the 1970s after multiple failed attempts at observing daylight saving time year-round. Over the last few years, nearly every state has passed or tried to pass legislation that would “lock the clocks,” but the move would largely depend on Congress taking action.
There have been a handful of bills introduced in Congress that call for permanent daylight saving time. Despite bipartisan support, they have all stalled.
Because of this, the U.S. (except one state and most of another) will again be setting its clocks back on Sunday, November 3 this year.
We’ll remain under standard time until March 9.
While most state and federal efforts to pass seasonal time change legislation are aimed at permanent daylight saving time, most sleep and healthcare experts say permanent standard time is “undeniably” the healthier option for us.
Making such a move could prove beneficial to multiple aspects of our lives, such as educational performance, heart health, drug use, speeding, delinquent behaviors, and employment salaries, experts say.
One of the biggest reasons is the amount of daylight we would get in the mornings, Dr. Alaina Tiani, a clinical health psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorder Center, previously told Nexstar.
When we “fall back” in November, sunrises will slide forward by an hour. For some parts of the country, that means moving the sunrise from the 7 o’clock hour to the 6 o’clock hour. If the U.S. were to stay on daylight saving time year-round, sunrises would be much later, nearing 9 a.m. in some areas.
Let’s use Chicago as an example. When daylight saving time ends next week, sunrise will change from 7:25 a.m. to 6:26 a.m., according to this NOAA solar calculator. Sunrise times will slide later until they reach 7:18 in January. Then, the sun will slowly start to come up earlier and earlier until March (when daylight saving time begins again).
Meanwhile, when daylight saving time ends, sunset will shift from 5:43 p.m. to 4:42 p.m. The sun will set slightly earlier nearly every day, hitting 4:19 in mid-December, then creep later until making the large jump in March.
If daylight saving time was permanent and the clocks did not “fall back,” sunrises and sunsets would largely continue on their same trajectory. The sun would rise much later in Chicago, coming up after 8 a.m. for over two months.
That would lead to dark morning commutes to work and school, a problem opponents of permanent daylight saving time pointed to when the U.S. briefly locked the clock in the 1970s. Days would, however, “last longer,” with the sun setting after 5 p.m. through December and January. Come February, the sun would set after 6 p.m.
Unless Congress acts very quickly over the next week, prepare for more daylight in the mornings as the clocks fall back an hour on November 3.
