The Ins And Outs Of The Fall Time Change In Wyoming

Folks can get an extra hour of sleep this weekend as the annual fall time change takes effect in Wyoming and most of the rest of the United States, with a few exceptions.

The time change officially takes effect at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 3, with the time changing from Daylight Saving Time to Mountain Standard time.

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By the way, the correct term actually is Daylight Saving Time, not "Savings" time, though the incorrect term is often used in casual conversation.

Two U.S. states don't observe the time chnage. Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii don't change the clocks twice a year, nor does Puerto Rico, Guam and several other U.S. Territories.

History Of Daylight Saving Time

According to the website timeanddate.com, the first time changes were not in the United States. Thunder Bay, Ontario observed the first Daylight Saving Time in July 1, 1908. Within a few years, other cities in Canada had followed suit.

The website says Germany and it's ally Austria instituted Daylight Saving time in 1916 to save fuel used for lighting during World War I.

In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time--or "war time" as it was then called, was implemented in both World Wars according to Smithsonian Magazine. But that was a short-term change, again designed to save resources for the war effort.

Making changing the clocks a twice-annual event in this country was implemented with the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

In 1974 congress passed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time year-round in an effort to save energy in the face of an oil embargo imposed by the OPEC countries.

President Nixon signed the bill into law, but it was repealed a couple of years later. The other changes to the duration of Daylight Saving Time came n 1986 and 2007 when congress extended it by a month, again in an effort to save energy.

Time Changes Have Become Controversial

But the concept of changing the clocks twice a year has become increasingly controversial in recent years, both in Wyoming and across the country. Critics question whether changing the clocks is really an energy-saving move in an age of computers and air conditioning

Numerous studies have found the time changes cause an increase in accidents and even heart attacks, and there is little question that the practice disrupts sleep patterns.

In Wyoming, a 2020 law passed by the legislature would have Wyoming ask for federal permission to go to year-round Daylight Saving Time if  three other "western states" passed such legislation. The bill defined those states as North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.

Over the past five years, 19 states have passed laws mandating an end to changing the clocks by going to Daylight Saving Time year-round, Apparently Daylight Saving Time, with extra light at the end of the day, is more politcally popular than Standard Time.

But while the federal law allows states to opt out of Daylight Saving Time if they choose, it does not allow them to leave Standard Time behind without federal permission. While bills to do that have been introduced in Congress in recent years, none have so far become law.