LANSING —Daylight will break earlier and dark will descend sooner, but a Michigan State University expert says Michigan’s annual end to daylight saving time really isn’t that simple.
This year, the fall ritual of setting clocks back to gain an hour happens on Nov. 3 and, as always, it will be part of bidding farewell to the summer.
Schoolchildren will wake up to spend less time in the dark. Evening exercisers will need to suit up with lights and reflectors to complete their routines safely.
It may not be as bad as the spring start of daylight saving, when the "spring forward" has long been connected with vehicle crashes and heart attacks because of losing sleep.
However, “it’s estimated that maybe up to 15-20% of the population (in Michigan) actually suffers from seasonal depression, most of which remains undiagnosed,” said Hanne Hoffmann, who studies the influence of light on our body clocks as an assistant professor for MSU’s animal science department.
“You can just have less energy or you can have a full-blown depression where you’re suicidal," she said. "It'sassociated with natural light and getting this bright sunlight.”
To give you an idea of the sunlight difference, meteorologist Bob Dukesherer of the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said Tuesday counted 11 hours, 25 minutes of sunlight for theLansing area. At the December winter solstice, there was 9 hours, 2 minutes.
“We lost over two hours of daylight,” Dukesherer calculated.
Hoffmann advises a light therapy lamp, which may also be known as sad light, happy light and therapy light. They are available from retailers such as Amazon at a range of prices.
She said the equipment helps most people dealing with seasonal depression.
Daylight saving time, although not always popular, has persisted and is observed by nearly all U.S. states every March until November.
Here's what to know:
When does daylight saving time end?
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Nov. 3, 2024, the first Sunday in November. This marks the return to standard time.
When do clocks fall back?
When local time reaches 2 a.m. on Nov. 3, clocks will turn backward an hour to 1 a.m.
Your smartphones, computers and smart watches will automatically adjust to the time change. But if you have appliance clocks, old-fashioned clocks or analog watches, remember to adjust those manually.
What is daylight saving time?
Daylight saving timeis when "daylight" begins an hour later in the morning and lasts an hour longer in the evening, according to theNational Institute of Standards and Technology.
This allows the hour of daylight to stay coordinated with the time most people are active outside. Daylight saving time is supposed to save energy since during the warmer months the majority will be outside and not at home which saves energy.
When is the shortest day of the year in 2024?
The shortest day of the year marks the winter solstice, the first day of winter. This year, it will fall on Dec. 21.
When does daylight saving time begin in 2025?
Daylight saving time will begin again on March 9, 2025.
Is daylight saving time ending?
The push to stop changing clocks was put before Congress in the last couple of years, when the U.S. Senate unanimously approved theSunshine Protection Actin 2022, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent.
Although the Sunshine Protection Act was passed unanimously by the Senate in 2022, theU.S. House of Representativesdid not pass it and President Joe Biden did not sign it.
A2023 version of the actremained idle in Congress, as well.
Does every state observe daylight saving time?
Not all states and U.S. territoriesparticipatein daylight saving time.
Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time. Because of its desert climate,Arizonadoesn't follow daylight saving time (with the exception of the Navajo Nation). After most of the U.S. adopted the Uniform Time Act, the state figured that there wasn't a good reason to adjust clocks to make sunset occur an hour later during the hottest months of the year.
There are also five other U.S. territories that do not participate:
- American Samoa
- Guam
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Puerto Rico
- U.S. Virgin Islands
The Navajo Nation, located in parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, does follow daylight saving time.
Hawaii is the other state that does not observe daylight saving time. Because of its proximity to the equator, there is not a lot of variance between hours of daylight during the year.