Get ready for an extra hour of sleep. Here’s when daylight saving time ends in Kentucky
Kentucky residents will soon gain an hour when they set their clocks back at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3 for the end of daylight saving time, which began in March.
The state has seen incrementally less daylight since the summer solstice June 20, and by Oct. 15, Kentuckians will see the sun set before 7 p.m.
But haven’t commonwealth legislators tried to end the practice of springing forward and falling back? Here’s what to know about the state of daylight saving time in Kentucky.
Daylight saving time legislation in Kentucky
Kentucky lawmakers prefiled a bill in 2019 aiming to establish year-round daylight saving time in the Bluegrass State if allowed by the Congress, but the bill never moved through the legislature. States do not have the authority to choose permanent daylight saving time.
Most recently, House Bill 674, filed in February, would make Kentucky exempt from daylight saving time and establish year-round standard time in the commonwealth. It was assigned to the Committee on Committees, WHAS 11 reported earlier this year, and died.
Although the U.S. Senate approved a bill last year to make daylight saving time the year-round standard across the nation, the measure has yet to pass the bicameral legislature. So far, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states in the country that don’t observe daylight saving time, and the Navajo Nation portion of Arizona does practice daylight saving.
The history of daylight saving
Daylight saving time was made a legal requirement by the Uniform Time Act of 1966, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports.
State governments cannot independently change time zones or the length of daylight saving time, the department reports, but they can exempt themselves from the practice.
“States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads.
Next year’s daylight saving time will begin Sunday, March 9, 2025.
How does daylight saving affect your sleep?
While Kentucky residents will gain an hour Nov. 3, the time change might not actually translate to more sleep.
“There is little evidence of extra sleep” on the fall night when daylight saving ends, according to a 2013 article from the Sleep Medicine Reviews journal, and you might actually be losing rest.
“The cumulative effect of five consecutive days of earlier rise times following the autumn change again suggests a net loss of sleep across the week,” the article’s abstract reads.
The end of daylight saving time has also been linked to other issues, such as increased collisions with deer, a 2022 article published by Current Biology reports.
While you might be less well-rested when the time changes this November, an article last updated in February by the Mayo Clinic Health System offers tips on how to reduce your sleep loss:
If you feel tired a few days after daylight saving time ends, take a 15- to 20-minute nap in the early afternoon.
Assess whether naps are helpful to you. Napping can hurt nighttime sleep for some people, while others may benefit from short naps.
Make an effort to be well-rested before the time changes.
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This story was originally published September 25, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
