Tom Liberatore, a materials purchasing manager, walks past clocks being tested prior to shipping at the Electric Time Company in Medfield, Mass.

Tom Liberatore, a materials purchasing manager, walks past clocks being tested prior to shipping at the Electric Time Company in Medfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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Friendly reminder: Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.thousand. Sun, Nov. vii, which ways we nonetheless are a few weeks away from turning those clocks back.

Theoretically, we'll proceeds an hour of sleep. But we'll also be losing an 60 minutes of evening light through March 13, 2022 — when it's time to "leap" forward. The tradition of changing clocks officially began in the U.S. on March 19, 1918.

Hither's what you demand to know well-nigh the century-one-time tradition.

When did daylight saving time start?

Information technology was established during World War I equally "a way of conserving fuel needed for war industries and of extending the working 24-hour interval," the Library of Congress explained in a post online.

Simply it was only temporary. The law was repealed nigh a twelvemonth after, on August 20, 1919, equally soon as the war was over.

"However, the sections of the 1918 law, which had established standard time zones for the country, remained in effect," the library said. "In 1921, Congress readjusted the western boundary of the standard cardinal time zone, shifting parts of Texas and Oklahoma into this zone."

The topic of daylight saving surfaced over again during World State of war 2. On Jan. twenty, 1942 Congress re-established daylight saving time.

More 2 decades later, in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Compatible Time Deed, declaring daylight saving time a policy of the U.Due south. and establishing uniform start and end times within standard time zones.

What are the rules?

Daylight saving fourth dimension and fourth dimension zones are regulated by the U.Southward. Department of Transportation (DOT) nether the Uniform Time Act. Daylight saving begins each year on the second Sunday in March, starting at two a.thousand.

"If a state chooses to observe Daylight Saving Fourth dimension, it must brainstorm and cease on federally mandated dates," the DOT says.

Does everyone change their clocks?

No. Hawaii, most of Arizona, and a scattering of U.Due south. territories — including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands — practise not observe daylight saving time.

A bill chosen the "Sunshine Protection Act," which allows Florida to remain on daylight saving time twelvemonth-round, was passed in the state Firm and Senate in March. Gov. Rick Scott and then signed the bill into constabulary. Notwithstanding, Congress all the same needs to amend existing federal police force to allow the modify.

If canonical by the federal government, this volition effectively motion Florida'due south residents one time zone to the east, aligning cities from Jacksonville to Miami with Nova Scotia rather than New York and Washington, D.C.

Why does it thing?

There are several reasons why officials believe daylight saving time is beneficial.

Some say it saves energy because people tend to spend more fourth dimension outside when it's lighter out. The DOT claims information technology likewise "saves lives and prevents traffic injuries," because visibility is better.

Still, some believe the process is a "hassle."

Proponents of scrapping daylight saving time argue it's generally unnecessary, disturbs sleep patterns and has recently become fifty-fifty more complicated. In 1986, Congress extended daylight saving from a six- to 7-month period and extended it again in 2005 to viii months — mid-March to mid-November.

"Congress really gave us a wise compromise in 1966 with half dozen months of standard fourth dimension, but because of the lobbies on behalf of daylight nosotros now spring forward in the heart of the winter," Michael Downing, author of "Leap Forrad: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving," told Fox News in 2015.

Disagreements over daylight saving aren't new. In 1965, before the Uniform Act was passed, 71 major cities in the U.South. with a population of over 100,000 were using daylight saving, while 59 others were not.

"People do not similar the hassle of adjusting their clocks twice a year," Downing added.

Trick News' Matt Finn and The Associated Printing contributed to this report.