Daylight Saving Time 2026: When the Clocks Go Back

On two different Sundays, depending on where you are. Europe and the United Kingdom: Sunday, October 25, 2026. The United States and Canada: Sunday, November 1, 2026. Both move the clock back one hour, so both gain an hour of sleep, just a week apart. Sources: timeanddate, Forbes.

Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 2:00 a.m. local time, when clocks go back to 1:00 a.m. The rule has been the first Sunday in November since the 2005 Energy Policy Act took effect in 2007. It applies in every state except Hawaii and most of Arizona, which never move. Source: timeanddate.

Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 2:00 a.m. BST, when the clocks go back to 1:00 a.m. and the UK returns to Greenwich Mean Time for the winter. British Summer Time resumes on the last Sunday of March 2027, which is March 28, 2027. Sources: timeanddate, Forbes.

Sunday, October 25, 2026, on the same instant across the EU, which lands at a different wall-clock time in each zone. Western European Time, including the UK, Ireland and Portugal: 2:00 goes back to 1:00. Central European Time, including France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland: 3:00 goes back to 2:00. Eastern European Time, including Greece, Finland and Romania: 4:00 goes back to 3:00. Sources: timeanddate, Forbes.

Because they legislated separately and never lined the dates up. The EU fixed its change to the last Sunday in October; the United States moved its own to the first Sunday in November with the 2005 Energy Policy Act, effective 2007. In most years that leaves a one-week window where the usual time difference between the two continents is an hour smaller than normal. In 2026 that window is October 25 to November 1.

You gain one. The autumn change repeats an hour, so the night is 25 hours long and you get an hour more sleep. The cost is the evenings: sunset jumps an hour earlier the same day, which is the part people actually notice. The reverse happens in spring, when an hour disappears.

It is closer than it has been, but it is not law. The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139) on July 14, 2026 by 308 votes to 117, a wide bipartisan margin. The bill went to the Senate on July 15 and was referred to the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where it currently sits. President Trump has backed it, arguing the twice-yearly switch costs households, cities and states money for no return. Until the Senate acts and it is signed, the clocks keep changing. Sources: Congress.gov, The Hill, NBC News.

It would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, locking the country onto the time it currently keeps from March to November rather than onto standard winter time. States that wanted to stay on permanent standard time would have to exempt themselves before it took effect. The practical result would be later sunrises in midwinter and no more clock changes in either direction. Source: Congress.gov.

Not in 2026, and possibly not at all in its current form. The Commission proposed ending seasonal changes in 2018 and the European Parliament voted for it in March 2019, but the Council never agreed a position, because member states could not settle on whether to keep permanent summer or permanent winter time and how to avoid a patchwork of time zones across neighbouring countries. The Commission has since signalled it will withdraw the proposal as part of its Omnibus simplification package, while saying in March 2026 that ending the changes is still possible and that it will publish a supporting study by the end of 2026. Sources: Council of the EU, European Parliament, European Commission.

Hawaii and most of Arizona, where the Navajo Nation is the exception and does observe it. Among the territories, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands stay on standard time all year. Everywhere else in the United States changes twice a year. Source: timeanddate.

The United States: Sunday, March 14, 2027, the second Sunday in March. The EU and the UK: Sunday, March 28, 2027, the last Sunday in March. That is a two-week gap in spring, longer than the one-week gap in autumn, because the two rules are anchored differently at each end.

Yes, for one week. Normally London is five hours ahead of New York. Between October 25 and November 1, 2026 the UK has already gone back to GMT while the US East Coast is still on daylight time, so the gap narrows to four hours. It returns to five on November 1. The same one-hour squeeze applies between Paris, Berlin or Madrid and the US East Coast.

To save fuel in wartime. Germany and Austria-Hungary adopted it first, in April 1916, to cut coal use for lighting, and Britain and much of Europe followed within weeks. The United States adopted it in 1918, repealed it, then reinstated it in the Second World War and again with the 1966 Uniform Time Act. The energy argument that justified it has been disputed for decades, which is most of why the policy keeps coming back up.

Most of the world, in fact. Japan, China, India, Russia, Turkey and almost all of Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East do not change their clocks. Countries near the equator gain almost nothing from it, because day length barely varies. Where it is used, it is concentrated in Europe, North America, and parts of the southern hemisphere such as Chile, Paraguay, New Zealand and southeastern Australia, which change in the opposite months.