If you’re asking, “When do we turn clocks forward in 2025?” the answer is that Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins for Florida—and most of the United States—at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2025. At that moment, clocks will “spring ahead” one hour to 3 a.m., meaning we lose an hour of sleep as daylight extends into the evening.
Most of the U.S. follows this spring shift, except for Hawaii and most of Arizona (the Navajo Nation in Arizona does observe DST), since those states skip Daylight Saving Time entirely. The change occurs well before Easter, as days grow longer heading toward the Spring Equinox. A simple way to remember it is “Spring Ahead, Fall Back.”
Could Florida Skip the Spring Time Change?
In 2018, then-Governor Rick Scott signed the Sunshine State Protection Act, aiming to make DST permanent in Florida and eliminate the biannual clock adjustments—including the spring forward shift. However, this state law remains on hold, as federal law (the Uniform Time Act of 1966) requires congressional approval for states to adopt year-round DST. Without it, states can only choose permanent standard time.
Now a U.S. Senator, Rick Scott, alongside former Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), is pushing for a nationwide fix. On January 7, 2025, Scott introduced the Sunshine Protection Act (S. 29) in the 119th Congress (2025-2026), with Rubio as a co-sponsor. A matching House bill, H.R. 139, was filed by Representative Vern Buchanan on January 3, 2025. If passed, these bills would lock the U.S. into permanent DST, scrapping the spring time change starting in 2026.
In December, President Donald Trump announced that he wants to end Daylight Savings Time in the United States.
As of February 24, 2025, both bills are stuck in committee—S. 29 in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and H.R. 139 in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. No votes are scheduled yet. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously in 2022 but didn’t make it through the House. Unless Congress acts before March 9, 2025, Florida and most of the U.S. will still spring forward as usual this year.
When Does Daylight Saving Time Begin?
Daylight Saving Time kicks off on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 2 a.m., when clocks spring forward to 3 a.m. .
History of Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time, including its spring forward tradition, started in Europe during World War I to save fuel and was adopted by the U.S. in 1918. Benjamin Franklin is often wrongly credited with the idea due to his saying, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” from Poor Richard’s Almanac. In reality, he had no hand in DST.
Is It “Daylight Savings” or “Daylight Saving”?
The correct term is “Daylight Saving Time” (no “s”), though “Daylight Savings Time” is a common slip-up in American English.
Daylight Saving Time Bad For Your Health
Losing that hour of sleep in spring isn’t just annoying—it’s tough on your body. Studies link the DST start to an 8% spike in strokes and a 10% jump in heart attacks in the following days, highlighting the stress of the sudden shift.