As the fall days slowly become shorter, North Texans are reminded that we’ll soon be changing our clocks again.

Early Sunday morning, Nov. 3, clocks will “fall back” an hour marking the end of this year’s Daylight Saving Time.

Then we won’t touch our clocks again until March 9.

The hour change explained

Daylight Saving Time is a stretch of 34 weeks every year that starts in the spring and ends in the fall.

But when, exactly, does that happen? The date the clocks change is different every year.

Each year we set our clocks forward an hour the second Sunday in March and turn them back an hour the first Sunday of November. The time changes occur at 2 a.m.

Luckily, many clocks automatically spring forward or fall back as we sleep through the early-morning change — unlike when the United States adopted the Standard Time Act in March 1918. This law also established the different time zones across the county, putting most of Texas in the Central Time Zone.

Although many people recognize the time change only as something that causes them to lose or gain an hour of sleep, the initial goal of Daylight Saving Time was to provide an extra hour of sunlight during the day and save energy.

The 1918 law has been implemented and repealed various times, but the Uniform Time Act of 1966 set in place the current practice of switching between standard time and Daylight Saving Time.

Some states, like Arizona and Hawaii, opt out of Daylight Saving Time and keep their clocks untouched year-round.

Texas lawmakers have pushed in recent years for the state to remain in Daylight Saving Time year-round, but no legislation has been enacted.