Goodbye Daylight Saving, 'Fall Back' This Weekend

By Kim Wendel

Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour before going to bed Saturday night. Say goodbye to Daylight Saving time but you do gain an hour of

In the past, the time change happened on the last Sunday in October. This year, and all years after, the end of Daylight Saving Time will occur on the first Sunday in November.

Fire departments across the country also urge you to change the batteries in all your smoke detectors this weekend. The time change is just a convenient reminder to do that.

What's the purpose of changing the clocks anyway?

Daylight Saving Time (or summertime, as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer.

During Daylight Saving Time, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer.

The reason DST seems to work is because its saves energy due to less artificial light needed during the evening hours -- clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the fall.

World Clock

It was Benjamin Franklin who first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but it was not until World War I, in 1916, when it was adopted by several counties in Europe that initially rejected the idea.