Daylight Savings Time 2024 ends: When the clocks change

It’s time again to “go back,” as November’s time change approaches. If you’ve been messing with your head all this time, you’re not alone. Here’s your bi-annual reminder of what it all means, and what to do.

The shortening of the days as the weather gets colder means that Daylight Saving Time (DST) is ending, and it’s time to return to normal time, when we turn our clocks back an hour. Yes, this is a clock change where you get an extra hour of sleep, rather than losing an hour of sleep like you do in the spring.

When does Daylight Savings Time end in 2024?

DST will technically end Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 2 am local time (if applicable in your area). Your smartphone will probably change itself, but if you have an old grandfather clock in your house, and you want to hear the time change as it happens, wait until 2 am and set your clock back to 1 am – yes, to repeat the hour that just happened.

Alternatively, just set your grandfather clock back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday night, November 2.

What does time change actually mean?

The “saved” daylight in the warmer months is the daylight from the hours around dawn transferred to the evening, which means that if we turn our clocks back, the morning will feel bright, but darkness will suddenly come before. You’ll get an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night, which can help you feel more rested on Sunday. You may feel like a night owl that first night, eating dinner under the stars instead of dusk.

Am I in a place where the time transition is visible?

If you’re in the US, you probably have to participate in DST, but you might do something different if you live:

• In Hawaiiwhere the southern latitudes make the concept of “Daylight Saving” less useful

• US Islands such as Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands (such as Saipan) where residents do not set their watches for the same reason as in Hawaii.

• Arizona outside the Navajo Nationwhere there is no change of time, just because

Why do we change our clocks in the first place?

“Daylight Saving” is an effort to use “extra” daylight in the evenings during the warmer months. Changing the clocks in the summer means that the already long days feel even longer because many people’s wake times are rescheduled to occur at sunrise, rather than the first hour of sunlight that is important in the summer when most people are asleep.

In the colder months, when there is no “extra” daylight to be saved, we return to normal time, which redirects most of our sunrise and sunset times, and temporarily restores the accuracy of the term “high noon” because the sun is straight up again.