Daylight saving time 2025: When is it? What is it? And why is it still considered controversial?

No, daylight saving time isn’t this weekend. But it’s coming soon.

On Sunday, March 9, most Americans will be changing their clocks — at least the ones that still require changing — by springing them forward an hour in observance of daylight saving time, which lasts until Nov. 2, when they fall back to standard time.

Why do we have daylight saving time, anyway?

In 1918, the U.S. passed a law called the Standard Time Act, implementing standard and daylight saving times.

According to the Department of Defense, the measure was enacted during World War I as a way to save energy by extending the time of day when the sun set.

It was reinstated during World War II but not standardized until 1966, when the Uniform Time Act established a system of uniform daylight saving time throughout the nation.

Observing daylight saving time is up to individual states, and not all of them do it. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time, nor do the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Most Americans want to stop changing their clocks

A 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans wanted to see the changing of the clocks eliminated entirely, compared to 21% who wanted to keep the current practice.

Of those who indicated they would like to get rid of the practice of changing the clocks, 50% said they would prefer year-round daylight saving time, compared to 31% who would rather have standard time.

Sleep doctors would prefer we switch to standard time permanently.

“The U.S. should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time,” the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said in a statement published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine last year. “Current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”

Behind the push to make daylight saving time permanent

There have been recent efforts at both the state and federal levels to end the twice-a-year ritual of changing the clocks.

Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced or passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent. But doing so would require an act of Congress.

In 2022, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Sunshine Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would have made daylight saving time permanent nationwide.

“It’s time to lock the clock and stop enduring the ridiculous and antiquated practice of switching our clocks back and forth,” said then-Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who co-sponsored the legislation.

The effort stalled in the House, but the bill was revived by the current Senate in January.

Where does Trump stand on the issue?

In December, before taking office, then-President-elect Donald Trump said he wanted to put an end to daylight saving time and observe standard time year-round.

"The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!" Trump wrote in a Dec. 13 post on Truth Social. "Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation."

But Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is leading the revival of the Sunshine Act, said in January that he believes Trump is “fully on board” with the effort.

“I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year — it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them,” Scott said in a statement. “I’m excited to have President Trump back in the White House and fully on board to LOCK THE CLOCK so we can get this good bill passed and make this common-sense change that will simplify and benefit the lives of American families.”