Get ready for sunsets before 5, clocks shift back for daylight saving time Saturday night

SEATTLE— Well, it’s that time of year to say goodbye to afternoon light.

When Americans go to bed Saturday night, they will have an extra hour of sleep. Clocks will shift around the US early Sunday morning at 2 am

Seattle’s Sunday sunset will be at 4:47 pm, but days will continue to shorten until the winter solstice on Dec. 21.

The yearly time change comes despite Washington pushing to keep the state on permanent daylight saving time (DST).

Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation in 2019 that would have allowed the state to shift to permanent DST.

But the Sunshine Protection Act has stalled at the federal level. Without Congressional approval, the legislation remains in limbo.

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A University of Washington professor was among a coalition of sleep doctors pushing the federal government to get rid of DST last year.

Many people agree that they do not like switching their clocks twice a year, whether they are springing forward or falling back. But, the main argument appears to be whether permanent standard time is the answer.

So why do we even have DST to begin with? Here are a few facts about the time switch.

Who had the idea to change the clocks? It depends on who you ask

The creation of DST is often credited to Benjamin Franklin, who first wrote about the idea in a letter to the editor of the Paris Journal in 1784. Franklin merely suggested Parisians should wake up earlier to save money on lamp oil and candles, and more importantly, he wrote it as satire.

If you enjoy DST as we know it today, you can thank New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson, who presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 that proposed a two-hour shift forward in October and a two-hour shift back in March . Although there was interest in Hudson’s proposal, and he followed up on it with another article in 1898, the idea never came to fruition.

Fast forward to 1905, and a man named William Willett came up with the idea of ​​moving the clocks forward in the summer to take advantage of the daylight in the mornings and lighter evenings. Willett’s idea was picked up by some legislators, who introduced legislation, but it was highly opposed, and Willett died in 1915 before his idea could become reality.

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Germany was the first country to enact DST

DST was first adopted in Germany during World War I in 1916 to replace artificial lighting so they could save on fuel for the war effort. It was quickly followed by Britain and many countries from both sides, including the US

Many countries reverted back to standard time post-World War I, and it wasn’t until World War II that DST made its return and remained for many countries.

The Uniform Time Act

DST wasn’t standardized across the US until the passage of the 1966 Uniform Time Act, which gave the federal government oversight over the time change.

The time change is now implemented in over 70 countries worldwide. Currently, most of the US observes DST except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, and the US insular areas of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam.

The time frame used to be different

In the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday in November. But that wasn’t always the case.

According to the AARP, prior to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which went into effect in 2007, DST was observed from early April until late October.

It takes a toll on your health

Losing an hour of sleep each March can take a toll on your well-being, according to sleep experts.

“The shift to daylight saving time has been linked to an uptick in heart attacks, strokes, traffic fatalities and workplace injuries — and some sleep experts have called for an end to springing forward altogether,” according to the AARP.

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Washington isn’t the only state that wants to stop changing the clock

In the last few years, at least 19 states have either enacted legislation or passed resolutions to stick to DST year-round, but implementing this change would require an update to federal law, which goes back to the Uniform Time Act.

Under that law, states can either observe DST as currently practiced or stay on standard time year-round — meaning there’s no easy shortcut for those hoping for a permanent shift forward.

So whether you enjoy it or not, you’ll need to remember to set your clocks back an hour on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 2 am