Daylight Saving 2022: When Do Clocks Spring Forward In PA?

PENNSYLVANIA — Just when it was starting to get lighter earlier in the mornings, it will soon be time to spring forward in Pennsylvania.

Daylight saving time is just around the corner. This year, it begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 13, which means later sunsets, longer-seeming days and the biannual hassle of changing the time on old-school clocks.

For those who don't know, daylight saving time is the practice of setting clocks forward one hour from standard time in the spring, and back again in the fall, in order to make better use of natural daylight.

Pennsylvania is among the 48 states that — often begrudgingly — observe daylight saving time. Hawaii and Arizona don't observe the practice, although the Navajo Nation in the Grand Canyon State does.

But it's not a popular practice across the country. Americans by a 63 percent to 16 percent margin favoring ditching daylight saving time altogether, according to a recent Economic/YouGov poll.

The reasons the United States observes daylight saving are arguably absurd — as outlined in this video.

State Rep. Russ Diamond (R-102nd District) last November introduced legislation that would end the practice in Pennsylvania.

"Studies have shown that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes," he wrote. "These government-mandated interruptions of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical/mental health. Clock changes require farmers to make needless adjustments, as crops and animals live by the sun, not a time piece."

The legislation, House Bill 846, is currently "laid on the table," which means it may be considered at a later date.

So, daylight saving time remains a thing in Pennsylvania. And you've been warned.

Patch writers Eric Heyl, Adam Nichols, Matt Troutman, and Michael Woyton contributed to this report.