Fall Back! Daylight Saving Time for 2014 Ends Sunday

On Sunday November 2, the U.S. and parts of Canada will switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time at 2:00 a.m. Clocks will need to be set back one hour and North Americans will find themselves gaining an extra hour of sleep.

Daylight Saving Time is a system that manages the changing amounts of daylight that occur throughout the year. The goal is to maximize daylight hours during the workday.

Ben Franklin is reputed to have first proposed the system in 1784 believing that it would save an “immense sum.” It was not broadly adopted until World War I, when the U.S. used Daylight Saving Time as a means of saving energy for war production.

Just as in years past, the end of Daylight Saving Time causes days to seem shorter due to the sun setting one hour earlier in the evening.

Europe turned its clocks back one hour a week before the end of Daylight Saving Time in North America. Most of Asia, Africa, and South America do not observe Daylight Saving Time at all.

In 2015, Daylight Saving Time will start on March 8 in most of North America when clocks will be reset forward one hour. European Summer Time will begin on March 29.

In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona (except in the Navajo Nation). Until 2006, the counties in the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time and remained on standard time year round. As of April 2006, all of Indiana observes Daylight Saving Time.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)