What is Daylight Savings Time and When Does it Start?

It’s time to adjust your clocks once again as Daylight Savings Time ticks upon us. Here’s the best way to remember: “Spring forward, fall back.”

Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again, when you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “Way, what just happened?” Like any other widespread time shift, Daylight savings tends to cause a lot of confusion. For the most part, no one understands what exactly it is that we’re saving. It’s not like we’re eliminating or adding another hour to the 24 we already have. So let’s go through a brief breakdown of just exactly what it means to save the daylight, or more simply, “spring forward.”

At exactly 2 a.m. ET, the clocks will move forward an hour. For everyone who relies on their smartphone to keep track of everything but goes to bed with a wristwatch (that can’t be just me), you’ll wake up in the morning and realize that your watch reads 8 a.m. (or whatever time you wake up) and your phone reads 9 a.m. Basically, this means that your evenings will be a lot brighter. Whatever time you traditionally get out of work, the sun will still be up there. I mean, for at least an hour longer.

Of course, the idea of Daylight Savings was first proposed to save energy, courtesy of Benjamin Franklin. His proposal for the United States stipulated that we could theoretically extend the day by realigning our schedules with the Earth’s rotation. (For the record, other regions were already implementing it.) Unfortunately, he didn’t really take farmers into account … and as of 2017, we’re all super over the entire concept. While it may be one of the most common American traditions, Tevye would likely be other over it by now and ask us to stop.

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So don’t forget: On March 12, 2017 at 2 a.m. ET, the clock will spring forward. Which means, you’ll have to reset everything manually but your smart devices. That’s right — microwaves, ovens, wall clocks, alarm clocks, car clocks, watches, etc.