Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday. What to know about the time change

The weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer in Atlanta, which just means that an hour of the day is about to feel like it's been taken away.

Daylight Saving Time is set to kick in this weekend, springing all of our clocks forward until November.

The generally unpopular practice has been debated in Congress for years, including a recent bill introduced in February that would shift time zones for a more permanent time option.

But for now, those clocks are turning.

When is daylight saving time?

Daylight Saving Time will begin at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 8. This means that when the clocks would normally hit 2 a.m., they will instead jump straight from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m.

This means that sunrise and sunset will be about an hour later than normal starting next week. Daylight saving time continues until Sunday, Nov. 1, when the clocks will again "fall back," giving Americans an extra hour of sleep.

When did daylight saving time start?

The United States has been on the current clock timeline since 2007, when the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November were chosen for the time change.

But the history of daylight saving goes back more than a century.

The Standard Time Act was passed in March 1918 in the United States, and it established the contentious idea of daylight saving. But just a year later, the daylight saving part of the act was repealed, and daylight determination was determined on a local level.

It was nationally recognized again after World War II, but it varied from state to state. In 1966, the Uniform Time Act standardized the system with local exceptions.

Today, most of Arizona and all of Hawaii are the only states that don't observe the time change. It is also not observed in American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Tips for adjusting to daylight saving time

The time change is likely to disrupt sleep patterns for most Americans, with half of the country experiencing increased tiredness after the time change, according Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Here are some tips for adjusting to the new time:

• You can gradually change your bedtime and wake time by about 15 to 20 minutes each night in the week leading up to the change.
• You can go ahead and change your clock on Saturday, then go to bed at your normal time (though it will be an hour early) to get the same amount of sleep.
• On Sunday morning, head out into the sunlight to help regulate your morning routine.
• Go to bed early or sleep in late over the weekend to make sure you're fully rested for the new week ahead.

Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at [email protected].