The clocks have fallen back, everyone gained an hour of sleep Saturday night and are officially back on standard time.
On Sunday morning, Nov. 2, daylight saving time officially ended for 2025, and the clocks fell back one hour until March 8, 2026, when they will spring forward one hour. This is part of the twice-a-year clock changes.
All U.S. states, except Hawaii and Arizona, along with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, observe daylight saving time.
Daylight saving time is a subject that gets varying opinions and is ultimately complex to address.
Occupying one end of the spectrum is MTSU psychology major Cannon Cofren, who shared his opinion on the subject.
“I don’t really get impacted by daylight savings at all … I wake up early and I go to bed early every night,” Cofren said. “So you know, it’s not that big of a difference for me. Most of the time, I don’t even know it’s happened.”
Sophomores Stephen Sessler, Austin Pence, and freshman Colin Repa don’t even touch their clocks when daylight saving time rolls around.
“I like the idea of leaving it [time] alone,” Sessler said. “I think [the government] should just leave it be … I don’t think it’s too big of a deal, really.”
A decades-long debate over whether daylight saving time should be made permanent instead of the biannual back-and-forth. There have been attempts by the government at various times to address the question of whether the time should be changed.
One example is 1974, when President Nixon signed a bill into law that established a permanent time, as a way to address an ongoing energy crisis. The law was repealed later that year after growing public backlash.
In January, Congress introduced a bill titled the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, HR 139, but the bill has been referred to committees and has not seen any action as of yet. The Senate attempted to take up the bill on Oct. 28, but Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton objected to it.
Days are shorter during standard time, and longer during daylight saving time, due to the Earth’s natural cycles.
Daylight saving dates back to World War 1 and was officially implemented in 1918 with the passage of the Standard Time Act, but the act was eventually repealed. Prior to this, Benjamin Franklin made a proposal on this for the purpose of what he called candlelight conservation. The Uniform Act of 1966, however, established the permanent time zones used today.
MTSU freshman Emile Encke said she believed that, considering the history of daylight saving, it would be fine to set the clocks to a fixed time.
“So, from that perspective, I would be fine if they stopped and just kept it on a set time,” Encke said. “Because it is, I would say, a little annoying to have to lose an hour in the spring, and it goes back and forth.”
Cofren also mentioned that seasonal affective disorder can impact people through mood swings, increased blood pressure and other symptoms based on the lack of sunlight.
Seasonal affective disorder, also called SAD, is a particular type of depression that is often seen during the winter and fall seasons, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“When the sun’s out, you’re getting sun, right? Versus in the winter, when things are cold, you feel stiffer, right?” Cofren said. “You’re uncomfortable. You’re more likely to be depressed because everything’s so gloomy.”
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