It’s almost time to spring forward! Daylight saving time 2021 begins at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, March 14, meaning you’ll set your clock to 3 a.m. at that point.
Contrary to popular opinion, daylight saving time doesn’t last for half the year. Rather, it stretches approximately eight months and will come to an end on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. It’s been that way since 2007 when Congress declared that daylight saving time begins in the United States on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
The observance is often misidentified as “daylight savings time” with an extra “S,” but its name comes from the idea of saving daylight.
That being said, daylight saving time isn’t observed the same way — or at all — in some parts of the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized time zones and daylight saving practices around the United States, but it allowed individual states to pass laws exempting themselves. Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that do not observe the time change.
Some state lawmakers are fighting to kill the time change and retain daylight saving time all year round. Last month, Georgia’s Senate passed a bill 46-7 that would end the state’s observance of daylight saving time. California voted to make daylight saving time permanent in 2018, and Washington did the same in 2019. But federal law would have to change for these measures to take effect.
The spring forward can be an especially difficult one when you lose an hour of sleep. Many experts have pointed to the time change’s adverse health effects. For example, a recent study by the National Institutes of Health found that around 150,000 Americans experienced physical health problems caused by the biannual time changes.
These included strokes, heart attacks, accidents and changes in mood, for example, said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent.
“It’s really all about that crossover between biology and social life and how it affects our circadian rhythms,” she said.
Try to prepare the body gradually. Slowly adjusting your sleep schedule about a month in advance can lessen the time change’s blow.
