Daylight Saving Time 2013 Ends November 3, So Prepare To Turn Back Your Clocks

SUNDAY: Prepare To Turn Back Your Clocks

Sunday is going to be a good day for sleeping in. Well, if you're in an area that observes daylight saving time anyway.

Yes, the biannual changing of the clocks is upon us. Many in North America will gain an extra hour when daylight saving ends Nov. 3, and time falls back one hour, meaning you'll have an extra hour to do whatever you wish this weekend.

The change should take place automatically for most with smartphones, laptops and tablets. (Make sure you have the "set automatically" feature enabled in your date and time settings.)

But for those using analog watches and non-digital alarm clocks, the switch will take place at 2 a.m. Sunday. So expect your clock to be an hour ahead when you wake up in the morning. (Or you may want to consider preemptively turning the clock back by one hour before bed Sunday.)

With the end of the daylight saving, which took effect this year on March 10, participating countries will return to standard time. By shifting the observed time forward in the spring and back in the fall, territories are able to maximize the hours of sunlight available during regular daytime hours.

However, not everyone will receive an additional hour this week. Residents in Arizona and Hawaii, for example, do not take part in the time change. As Arizona's KNXV-TV notes, the choice not to observe daylight saving is linked to the weather.

While daylight saving time has often been associated with saving energy, some recent studies suggest the practice does the opposite and may even result in increased use of electricity to provide lighting.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with proposing the time change more than 100 years before the process was introduced by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, in 1895. The modern practice was not widely accepted until some time later.

Daylight saving time is observed around the world in parts of South America, Africa and Australia, but countries in North America and Europe are the primary adopters. European nations have already gained an extra hour, setting their clocks back a week before the U.S. on Oct. 27.

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