Remember to “Fall Back” and Change Clocks on Nov. 2nd

The clock change for Daylight Saving is Sunday, Nov. 2nd when clocks roll back an hour to return to Standard Time.

Remember to roll clocks back an hour officially at 2 a.m.

You'll pick up an extra hour of sleep as clocks move back in the fall to take make better use of natural daylight.  In Spring, we jump ahead an hour for the same reason into D.S.T. or Daylight Saving time.

You'll give up the hour when we "spring forward" to D.S.T. on the second Sunday in March.  Remember, we 'fall back" to Standard Time in the fall and "spring forward" in spring as easy ways to remember the time changes.

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Efforts Continue to Drop Time Changes

Spokane Valley Republican Senator Mike Padden has sponsored a bipartisan bill that would keep Washington on standard time permanently.

He says the public is unified in its view of time changes.

“One thing that I think most people agree on, it’s the dislike of moving their clock backward and forward,” said Padden. “Ya know, spring forward, fall back.”

State Senate staff conducted research into the background of time changes in Washington and came up with many twists and turns dating back to the 1930s.

According to Senate staff, Seattle was the first city in Washington to adopt daylight saving time in 1933, with Spokane and other cities following Seattle's example.

But a snag developed when differences in observance of the time change led to difficulties in sustaining train routes, business and office hours, and ferry routes.

The cities abandoned the experiment with the time change, and all returned to standard time shortly afterward.

Then, according to Senate staff, about 40 percent of the country was observing summer daylight saving by 1947.

The next year, Seattle re-implemented daylight-saving time, along with much of the western part of the state.

By 1949, Seattle voters had approved a referendum for daylight saving to continue, with other Washington cities following the lead.

But according to Senate staff research, voters wobbled back and forth on the time change over the next decade.

• In 1952, state voters outlawed daylight saving with a robust 60 percent of the ballot.  But as more states began to adopt the time change throughout the 1950s, Washington became an outlier.
• In 1960, 52 percent of state voters passed Initiative 210, which brought back daylight-saving time.
• In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act to "promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones"

According to state Senate researchers, 19 states have since passed legislation or resolutions supporting year-round daylight-saving time.

But implementing the policy requires approval from Congress, which has not acted on the time change to date.

Padden says scientific studies show time changes are bad for people’s health.

“Greater risks of heart attacks, more workplace injuries, and a number of things,” Padden said. “I just think the rhythms of life go better if we’re on something permanent, be it daylight or standard time.”

(Tracy Ellis, Washington State Senate Republican Communications contributed to this story)

READ MORE: How Daylight Saving Can Save Your Life