2025 time change dates for United States
At 2:00 AM the clocks jump straight to 3:00 AM in United States. That hour never happens, and everyone loses an hour of sleep.
At 2:00 AM the clocks return to 1:00 AM, so that hour is lived through twice and the night is an hour longer.
Countdown to the next change
Does DST Actually Save Energy?
This was the original justification, and it is the claim that has held up worst. A US Department of Energy report to Congress in 2008 measured the four weeks added to DST in 2007 and found a saving of about 0.5% of daily national electricity use — real, but small.
Other work has found no saving at all. A well-known study of Indiana, which adopted DST statewide in 2006, found residential electricity use actually rose by 1–4%: households used less lighting but more air conditioning on hot summer evenings. Any lighting savings are also partly offset by extra petrol use as people travel more in the lighter evenings.
Agricultural Considerations
The story that DST was introduced for farmers has it exactly backwards. Farmers in United States and elsewhere were among its most persistent opponents, and the American farm lobby successfully campaigned to have national DST repealed after the First World War.
The reason is straightforward: farm work follows the sun, not the clock. Moving the clock forward just means doing the same work an hour earlier by the clock, while deliveries, markets and hired labour all shift with it. Dairy farmers make the point most often, since cows keep to their own schedule and take several days to adjust to a changed milking time.
Background
- Russia experimented with permanent summer time from 2011 to 2014 before settling on permanent standard time.
- The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end mandatory clock changes, but member states never agreed on which time to keep, so the change has stalled indefinitely.
- The spring transition is associated with a measurable short-term rise in heart attacks and fatal traffic crashes, an effect researchers attribute to the lost hour of sleep rather than the clock itself.
Tips for United States
Consider the time change when scheduling meetings with people in other time zones.
Take advantage of the 'extra' hour in fall to catch up on sleep or tackle a project.
Use the extra evening daylight in summer for outdoor activities and vitamin D.
Set your clocks before going to bed to avoid confusion in the morning.
Frequently asked questions
When do the clocks change in United States in 2025?
Clocks go forward on Sunday, March 9, 2025 and back on Sunday, November 2, 2025.
Which way do the clocks go?
"Spring forward, fall back" is the usual mnemonic: forward one hour in spring, back one hour in autumn.
Do I have to change anything myself?
Phones, computers and anything that syncs over the internet update on their own. Car clocks, ovens, microwaves and older wall clocks generally do not.
Is Daylight Saving Time being scrapped?
It has been proposed in many places and adopted in few. The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end mandatory clock changes and the change has stalled; in the United States the Sunshine Protection Act has repeatedly passed the Senate without becoming law. Most of the world that changes its clocks is still changing them.