Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 1, and most of the country will still be told to set clocks back one hour to 1 a.m. while Congress keeps arguing over whether to make the change permanent or scrap the twice-annual ritual altogether.
Who Makes People Reset Their Lives
The people who actually live with the disruption get the short end of the deal. November 1 marks the end of daylight saving time, bringing an extra hour of sleep for some and earlier sunsets for everyone else, while lawmakers in Washington keep treating the whole thing like a puzzle to be solved from above. Daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. That means the calendar keeps serving up the same clock-switching routine, whether people want it or not.
Lawmakers from both parties have spent years pushing proposals to either make daylight saving time permanent or eliminate the twice-annual clock change altogether. Several bills have advanced, including the Sunshine Protection Act of 2022 passed by the U.S. Senate, but none have made it across the finish line. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill in July to make daylight saving time permanent, but it faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The machinery of reform keeps moving, and then stalls. Same system, same dead end.
What People Say They Want
Polls suggest many Americans are tired of adjusting their clocks twice a year. A 2023 YouGov survey found that 62% of Americans favored eliminating the twice-yearly clock changes. A January 2025 Gallup poll found that 54% wanted to end daylight saving time, with 48% preferring year-round standard time and 24% favoring permanent daylight saving time. The numbers point in different directions, but they all point away from the current setup. People want the disruption gone.
Sleep and health experts have also argued that changing clocks twice a year disrupts the body's natural rhythm. Erik Herzog, a biology and neuroscience professor at Washington University in St. Louis and former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, previously told USA TODAY that permanent standard time would be the healthiest option. Herzog said clock changes disrupt circadian rhythms, the body's internal clock that regulates sleep and other biological functions. The spring time change, when clocks move forward an hour, is especially tough on the body and has been linked to increases in heart attacks and car crashes. The costs land on ordinary bodies, ordinary commutes, ordinary mornings.
The Senate Holds the Gate
Trump is personally calling politicians urging them to support the bill. “Hopefully the Senate's going to approve that one,” he said. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, has questioned whether the measure has enough votes to pass the upper chamber. So the fate of a nationwide clock change sits inside a chamber where a few officials decide whether the rest of the country gets to stop doing this twice a year.
Several states and U.S. territories do not observe daylight saving time and stay on standard time year-round: Hawaii, most of Arizona except the Navajo Nation, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. They already live outside the national clock-switching script. The rest of the country keeps waiting on Congress to decide whether to keep the old arrangement or replace it with another top-down rule.
For now, Americans should plan on another clock change this fall. While Congress continues debating whether to make daylight saving time permanent or end seasonal clock changes altogether, no change has become law. That means most of the country will still set clocks back one hour on Nov. 1, extending a tradition that many voters, health experts and even the president say they're ready to leave behind.