Get ready to lose an hour of sleep SC. Here’s when daylight savings starts in 2025
Longer days will soon return to South Carolina.
Daylight saving time is set to begin on Sunday, March 9, requiring most Americans to set their clocks forward one hour. Daylight saving time last ended on Nov. 3, 2024.
The longstanding tradition of moving clocks ahead or back one hour each year has been a struggle for many sleep-deprived Americans for decades.
Didn’t SC vote to end daylight saving?
The South Carolina Legislature voted in 2020 to make daylight saving time permanent. That means the state would stop changing the clocks twice a year and would no longer have to endure darkness before dinner during the winter months. However, the law doesn’t take effect until Congress votes to do away with the time changes.
What has Congress done on daylight saving?
Congress has tried a few times in recent years to end the time changing, but to no avail.
Most recently, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act in January — legislation that would end the practice of changing clocks twice a year. The act would eliminate the changing of clocks to standard time for November through March. The bill would not alter time zones or mandate those who do not currently observe daylight saving time to do so.
A similar bill was introduced in 2023 by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., which would let states remain on daylight saving time all year. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Also introduced such a bill. Those bills ended up getting stuck in committees.
Why make daylight saving permanent?
The U.S. has had some form of daylight saving time since 1918, with the current federal policy being enacted in 1966. There have been a few changes since then, mainly with adjustments to the start and end dates. Daylight saving time was originally enacted as a way to save energy by providing more daylight in the evening hours. Some studies have called such savings into question.
Other studies have shown impacts on people’s health because of the time changes.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has stated that “based on evidence that shows the switch to daylight saving time carries many health and accident risks and is misaligned with human circadian biology, the position of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine is that seasonal time changes should be abolished in favor of permanent standard time.”
