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Daylight Saving Time 2017: When Do Clocks Change And Will We Gain Or Lose Hour?

By Roz Zurko
Published on: 09:17 PST, Mar 7, 2017

Daylight Saving Time 2017 is almost here, and this is the week when many folks will start searching online for the answer to the question, “When do the clocks change?” The hours of daylight are getting longer, and despite the winter chill still lurking in the air, Daylight Saving Time arrives this weekend.

Did you know that clocks now “spring ahead” while it is still winter? This wasn’t always the case, but in 2005, the current Daylight Saving Time schedule was put in place, and the days of having the clocks “spring ahead” during spring are gone. Today, clocks spring ahead in winter.

The Daylight Saving Time change also causes another phenomenon twice a year. Sometime during the week, you will most likely be part of a conversation or overhear someone talking about losing or gaining one hour with Daylight Saving Time. Someone will be asking do we gain or lose one hour when the clocks are turned ahead this weekend? This concept is hard for some to comprehend as you are turning the clocks ahead, which the word “ahead” seems to suggest you are gaining, but, in fact, when you turn the clocks ahead, you lose an hour.

According to Time and Date, in the spring, when you set your clock ahead one hour, you lose one hour, and in the fall, when you set your clock back one hour, you gain one hour. It’s ahead, lose, and behind, gain. This spring’s Daylight Saving Time change takes place on Sunday, March 12, 2017, at 2 a.m. In the fall, it happens on Sunday, November 5, at 2 a.m. for 2017.

Twice during the year as Daylight Saving Time draws near, people will question if this is the time change where they get that extra hour to sleep. In the fall, it is “fall back” an hour, and this seems to suggest you are losing an hour, but you are not. It is during the fall Daylight Saving Time that you gain an extra hour, which most folks tend to use for sleep. It sounds easy enough to gain or lose an hour twice a year as most folks sleep right through it, but there is a lot of things depending on time where that hour lost or gained from Daylight Saving time causes a bit of a problem.

If you work a day job Monday through Friday, then the Daylight Saving Time change doesn’t interfere with your work day. For the people who work the graveyard shift overnight Saturday to Sunday, that hour plays havoc with their shift and possibly their pay. Nurses or staff who work overnight at a hospital, a nursing home or any type of inpatient setting will feel the hour change. They either need to work the extra hour or they get to go home an hour earlier, which depends on the time of year for the Daylight Saving Time change.

Daylight Saving Time did have it’s place in society when it gave the farmers more light during their work hours for harvest, but today, technology takes care of all that with machines that harvest in a fraction of the time. It has become rather obsolete, and for that reason, states are attempting to opt out of the Daylight Saving Time change. According to KXAN, Texas has three bills filed in this legislative session looking to rid the state of the antiquated Daylight Saving Time.

If the bills pass, Texas wants to stay on central standard time year-round. They are hoping this would start in November for them. Montana is another state that wants Daylight Saving Time to end for good. They too have a bill that would make Montana exempt from Daylight Saving Time. The bill was introduced to the state senate and passed it’s third and final reading on Friday with a vote 36-14. Now it heads to the House.

Adding to the confusion, except for the northeast corner of the state, Arizona does not follow Daylight Saving Time. Hawaii has also decided to opt-out as they are an island in the Pacific Ocean.

According to the website SCO.TT Time, as of last month there were 24 states moving ahead to abolish Daylight Saving Time or attempting to make some modification to the event. It is easier said than done because according to this website, the federal government controls the time, and they set the time zones.

It sounds like the only feasible way to get rid of the DST is for the federal government to abolish it throughout the nation. Think of what that would do to flights, trains, and buses when it came to time schedules if some states honored the Daylight Saving Time change, and some didn’t.

[Featured Image by DAB/AP Images]

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