Wait, Kansas has to turn clocks back for daylight saving time? Didn’t lawmakers end it?

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Kansas residents will soon gain an hour when they set their clocks back at 2 a.m. Nov. 5 for the end of daylight saving time, which began in March.

Fall officially began Sept. 23, and the sun is setting earlier while residents await cooler autumn weather.

Legislators in Kansas and across the U.S. have introduced many bills aiming to change the practice of “springing forward” and “falling back.” Here’s what to know about the state of daylight saving in Kansas.

Daylight saving time legislation in Kansas

Kansas legislators introduced a bill to exempt the state from daylight saving time in 2019, but it died in committee in 2020.

In 2021, lawmakers tried another route by introducing House Bill 2060, which would make daylight saving time permanent in the state. This bill died in May 2022.

These recent pieces of legislation were far from the only effort to end clock-changing, and the U.S. Senate has signed off on similar measure for the nation. But so far, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states in the country that don’t observe daylight saving time, and the Navajo Nation portion of Arizona does practice daylight saving .

The history of daylight saving

Daylight saving time was made a legal requirement by the Uniform Time Act of 1966, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports.

State governments cannot independently change time zones or the length of daylight saving time, the department reports, but they can exempt themselves from the practice.

“States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads.

Next year’s daylight saving time will begin March 10, 2024.

How does daylight saving affect sleep?

While Kansas residents will gain an hour Nov. 5, the time change might not actually translate to more sleep.

“There is little evidence of extra sleep” on the fall night when daylight saving ends, according to a 2013 article from the Sleep Medicine Reviews journal, and you might actually be losing rest .

“The cumulative effect of five consecutive days of earlier rise times following the autumn change again suggests a net loss of sleep across the week,” the article’s abstract reads.

The end of daylight saving time has also been linked to other issues, such as increased collisions with deer , a 2022 article published by Current Biology reports.

While you might be less well-rested when the time changes this November, a March article from the Mayo Clinic Health System offers tips on how to reduce your sleep loss :

  • If you feel tired a few days after daylight saving time ends, take a 15-to 20-minute-long nap in the early afternoon.
  • Assess whether naps are helpful to you. Napping can hurt nighttime sleep for some people, while others may benefit from short naps.
  • Make an effort to be well-rested before the time changes.
  • As reported in Wichita Eagle.

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