Life

When Does Daylight Saving Time End In 2017?

by Kiersten Hickman

Let me guess — you’ve clicked on this because you would love to know when you get that hour of sleep Daylight Saving Time selfishly stole from you back. I know, setting our clocks forward sounds absolutely awful. Metaphorically, of course, because our smartphones just do it for us these days. But even if setting our clocks is done for us, our bodies still lose that sleep and crave that hour back. So when does Daylight Saving Time end in 2017?

Daylight Saving Time starts in 2017 on Sunday, March 12. It ends in November, and in 2016, specifically on Nov. 5. OK, so you have to kind of wait a few months to win that hour of sleep back, but think about how lovely it’s going to feel on Nov. 5.

So why do we do this awful thing in the first place? Because losing sleep doesn't sound cool or anything.

If any of you have seen National Treasure, then you definitely know the answer to this. But those of you who didn’t go on a huge treasure hunt around the country with Nicholas Cage, then here it is: Daylight Saving Time was actually sort of based off of something that Benjamin Franklin wrote in a satirical essay titled “An Economical Project for diminishing the Cost of Light.” He wrote that in order to conserve candles, people should just wake up earlier and take advantage of the daylight — in other words, just change your sleeping schedule.

Now there have been many other countries and philosophers that have suggested a change in timing that best make sense for daylight, but Daylight Saving Time (otherwise known as DST) wasn’t put into affect until a little over 100 years ago. Now, it's reported to be used in 70 different countries, but the begin and end dates vary based on location.

All you need to know is that on Nov. 5, 2017, you’re going to have an awesome extra hour of sleep.