Most Americans lost an hour of sleep when daylight savings 2026 began early Sunday at 2: 00 a. m. ET, shifting an hour of daylight from morning to evening and changing sunrise and sunset times across the country.
National Weather Service Notes Boston Sunrise and Sunset Shifts
The National Weather Service listed Boston sunrise at 6: 09 a. m. ET and sunset at 5: 41 p. m. ET on Saturday, the day before the change, and sunrise at 7: 08 a. m. ET and sunset at 6: 42 p. m. ET on Sunday after clocks moved forward. Clocks jumped from 2: 00 a. m. to 3: 00 a. m. ET, creating a shorter 23-hour day for most of the U. S.
Daylight Savings 2026 and Which States and Territories Do Not Change Clocks
Most of the country moved clocks ahead at 2: 00 a. m. ET, but two states do not observe the practice: Hawaii and Arizona, with the exception of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. Several U. S. territories also do not change clocks: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands. During daylight savings 2026, those places remained on their standard time while most of the mainland shifted an hour forward.
Uniform Time Act History, the 1970s Experiment and the 2007 Start Date Change
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 set the start date as the last Sunday of April before later adjustments. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, Congress tried year-round daylight saving time beginning the first Sunday of January 1974, but the experiment ended in October of that year and the country resumed time changes the following February in 1975, then returned to an April start date. The start date has been the second Sunday of March since 2007; the U. S. Naval Observatory is the Defense Department’s official source of time for those determinations. The National Institute of Standards and Technology lists daylight saving time in effect for 238 days this year.
Most Americans will set clocks back to standard time at 2: 00 a. m. ET on Nov. 1, the first Sunday of November, when the country will “fall back” for the year.
