Daylight Saving Fall 2017: When Do We Turn Our Clocks Back?

It's about to become nighttime a whole lot earlier as Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday (Nov.5) at 2 a.m. Numerous Americans and people across the world will get an "extra" hour of sleep as their clocks change from 2 a.m. back to 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The clock will change back to Standard Time which the United States will follow until March 2018 when Daylight Saving Time will kick in again.

When you change your clocks or "fall back" an hour Sunday, Nov. 5, in the U.S., you will be following Standard Time once again which this nation has been following every year starting from the first Sunday in November until the second Sunday in March. The majority of the year, or the rest of the year, their clocks follow the Daylight Saving Time program.

This switch pushes sunrise and sunset also back an hour, meaning there will apparently be more light in the morning with darkness coming sooner in the afternoon.

Most of your computers and cell phones now have mechanisms to change their clocks automatically. However, you would be still required to check and fix your microwave, watch, and your car. This twice-a-year change is also a good opportunity to check the batteries in your smoke detector.

People also seem to be excited about the change in time as it would result in an extra hour of sleep. According to several Twitter users, sleeping in for that extra hour is a luxury many are already looking forward to and have made plans about it.

Daylight Saving Time has been practiced on and off for decades in the United States since 1918. This practice ensures long days in summer and short ones in the fall and winter months.

However, there are places in the country that do not observe the change too. Hawaii and Arizona don't observe Daylight Saving Time, which means there's no springing forward or falling backward on their clocks. Some U.S. territories such as American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands do not follow the change, either.

But there’s this question- Why do we do this? Here’s a look at some of the interesting facts why we started using Daylight Saving Time and continue to do so.

In 1918, Daylight saving was started as a tradition in the United States in order to conserve fuel. Daylight Saving Time starts on the second Sunday of March, according to tradition.

Earlier, we used to "fall back" or change our clocks in October, until Congress changed the month under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to November. Since then it has been changed on the first Sunday of November.

When we "fall back" in November, the East Coast returns to Eastern Standard Time.

Before the Congress in 2005 decided the shift, Daylight Savings Time used to begin on the first Sunday of April and ran through the last Sunday in October.

On April 30, 1916, Germany was the first ever country to adopt Daylight Savings.

Roughly 78 countries across the world observe Daylight Savings Time, however, Russia, India, China and Japan do not follow.