Life News

Clocks spring forward twice: the US on 8 March, Britain on 29 March, and nobody ends it

Daylight saving time began in the US at 2am on Sunday, 8 March, when clocks jumped to 3am. ABC7 in San Francisco noted that Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), Hawaii and US territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam do not change their clocks. The article said the switch will continue for the foreseeable future, pointing to a bill, the Daylight Act of 2026, that would change clocks by only half an hour.

ABC News medical correspondent Dr Darien Sutton advised moving bedtime 15 to 20 minutes earlier in the first week, avoiding alcohol and getting at least 15 minutes of natural light after waking.

“Small changes in sleep, even small decreases, can detrimentally affect your health, increasing stress hormones” — Dr Darien Sutton, via ABC7

Britain follows three weeks later. Time Out London reported on 18 March that UK clocks go forward at 1am on Sunday, 29 March. On that day the sun will set at 7.28pm in London and 7.54pm in Belfast, with sunsets after 8pm from 6 April. It cited a 2024 YouGov poll in which 46% of Britons wanted to keep the clock changes and 42% wanted to scrap them.

How each outlet framed it

• ABC7 — a health angle: the risk of heart attacks and strokes in the first two days, and how to adjust.
• Time Out — a lifestyle angle: lighter evenings city by city, and about 70 countries using daylight saving in some form.

What we don't know yet: Time Out says the EU voted in 2023 to stop mandatory daylight saving time but has not implemented it, and Britain has no plans to end clock changes.