Daylight Saving Time 2022: When do Clocks Change Back?

Daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 6, for 2022. Before you go to bed on Saturday night, set your clocks back one hour, because at 2AM, daylight saving time ends. This is also when you should check your smoke detectors and CO detectors. This means an hour more of sleep, so go ahead—treat yourself to a late night out the day beforehand.

In some states, the task of setting your clocks ahead in the Spring, and back in the Fall could become a thing of the past. State legislatures have considered at least 450 bills and resolutions in recent years to establish year-round daylight saving time as soon as federal law allows it. Much of the legislation would stop the disruption-causing, twice-yearly clock switching. Inherent in the debate is whether to enact either permanent standard time or permanent daylight time. The federal Uniform Time Act allows the former option but not the latter. A CBS News poll* in March 2022 found that 46% of U.S. residents preferred daylight saving time all year round, 33% preferred standard time year-round and 21% were okay with continuing to clock switch twice a year.

On March 15, the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. If passed by the House and signed by the president, the bill would move forward by one hour which is currently considered standard time by the federal government, beginning in November 2023. It would allow those states that had previously chosen to move to year-round daylight time, either through legislation or voter approval, to make that change. However, because the bill also repeals the section of federal law that changes standard time to daylight time from March to November, states would be forced to choose to operate either on standard or daylight year-round. States that currently remain on standard time year-round would be allowed to continue. The bill’s fate in the House is uncertain though matching legislation has been introduced and the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the issue in early March.

In the last five years, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to provide for year-round daylight saving time, if Congress were to allow such a change, and in some cases, if surrounding states enact the same legislation. Because federal law does not currently allow full-time DST, Congress would have to act before states could adopt changes.

The 19 states are Colorado (2022), Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Montana (2021). Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio (resolution), South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming (2020). Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington (2019). Florida (2018; California voters also authorized such a change that year, but legislative action is pending). Some states have commissioned studies on the topic including Massachusetts (2017) and Maine (2021).

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands observe permanent standard time.

* Source: National Conference of State Legislatures