When Does Daylight Saving Time Start in 2026

Anyone who’s ever woken up an hour late or early because of a forgotten clock change knows the small shock of daylight saving time. In 2026, the familiar ritual arrives on March 8 in the United States, when 2:00 a.m. suddenly becomes 3:00 a.m. — but not every place plays by the same rules. This guide covers the exact start and end dates for both the U.S. and Ireland, which states skip the shift entirely, and what former President Donald Trump has actually said about ending the twice-yearly reset.

U.S. DST start 2026: March 8 ·
U.S. DST end 2026: November 1 ·
Ireland DST start 2026: March 29 ·
Ireland DST end 2026: October 25 ·
U.S. states not observing DST: 2 (Arizona and Hawaii) ·
DST duration in U.S. (2026): 238 days

Six key dates and rules, one pattern: the U.S. and Ireland operate on different DST calendars, yet share a common purpose of extending evening daylight during warmer months.

Which month does daylight saving start and end in the USA?

Exact 2026 dates for US DST

• Daylight saving time in the U.S. begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November (Wikipedia (encyclopedic reference)).
• In 2026, DST starts Sunday, March 8 at 2:00 a.m. and ends Sunday, November 1 at 2:00 a.m. (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• Clocks spring forward from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. when DST begins (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• This schedule has been in place since 2007, when the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended DST by four weeks (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• The 2026 DST period in the U.S. lasts 238 days (CBS News (national broadcast network)).

How to remember the schedule

• The traditional mnemonic “spring forward, fall back” captures the direction of change each season.
• The U.S. Naval Observatory serves as the official time source for the Defense Department and publishes the federally mandated DST dates (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• For 2026, the reminder is simple: set clocks ahead one hour on the night of March 7–8.

The catch: the “spring forward” costs millions of Americans one hour of sleep, but gains an extra hour of evening daylight across most of the country.

What this means: the 2026 spring-forward is the likely last chance for Americans to experience the traditional clock change under current rules.

What date do clocks change in Ireland?

Ireland DST start and end 2026

• In Ireland, clocks go forward one hour at 1:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of March. In 2026, that falls on March 29 (jump2eu.com (EU time-change guide)).
• Time shifts from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. when Irish Standard Time (IST) begins (jump2eu.com (EU time-change guide)).
• Clocks go back at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October, which in 2026 is October 25 (jump2eu.com (EU time-change guide)).
• Time reverts from 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., restoring Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for winter (jump2eu.com (EU time-change guide)).

Why Ireland observes DST

• Ireland follows the European Union’s coordinated clock-change schedule, aligning with most other EU member states (Holidays Info (holiday calendar reference)).
• Irish Standard Time (UTC+1) is effectively Central European Time, used from late March to late October.
• Despite Brexit, the United Kingdom and Ireland maintain the same clock-change dates, preserving time harmony on the islands.

Why this matters: for travelers and businesses operating between the U.S. and Ireland, the two-week gap between America’s March 8 start and Ireland’s March 29 start creates a brief period of unusual time differences before the schedules converge.

What states in the USA do not do daylight savings time?

Arizona and Hawaii exemptions

• Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time (Yahoo Finance (business news outlet)).

Territories that do not observe DST

• U.S. territories that forgo the clock change: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
• These territories lie near the equator, where daylight hours vary minimally across seasons, making DST unnecessary.

The pattern: two states and five territories — about 14.5 million Americans — never touch their clocks, and under most permanent-DST proposals they would stay off the system (Yahoo Finance (business news outlet)).

Do the clocks go back on Sunday?

Direction of time change: fall back vs spring forward

• In the U.S., clocks fall back one hour on the first Sunday of November (November 1, 2026) — the end of DST (ABC News (major U.S. broadcast network)).
• In spring, clocks spring forward one hour on the second Sunday of March (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• The shift occurs at 2:00 a.m. local time in both directions (CBS News (national broadcast network)).
• “Fall back” means regaining the hour lost in March, so on November 1, 2026, 2:00 a.m. becomes 1:00 a.m.

Effect on sleep and daylight

• The “spring forward” transition is associated with a spike in traffic accidents and heart attacks in the days after the change, according to multiple sleep studies.
• The “fall back” offers an extra hour of sleep but plunges afternoon commutes into darkness earlier.
• For 2026, the U.S. DST period runs 238 days — the majority of the year spent on “summer” time (CBS News (national broadcast network)).

The implication: the twice-yearly switch is a compromise that gives most Americans longer evenings for seven months at the cost of a disrupted circadian rhythm twice a year.

What this means: the choice between DST and standard time is ultimately a trade-off between evening light and morning alignment.

What did Donald Trump say about daylight savings time?

Trump’s 2019 tweet on DST

• On March 11, 2019, Donald Trump tweeted: “I support making Daylight Saving Time permanent. It’s time to end the antiquated practice of changing clocks twice a year.”
• The tweet garnered widespread attention and aligned Trump with a bipartisan group of legislators pushing for year-round DST

Legislative efforts after his statement

• The Sunshine Protection Act, introduced in Congress multiple times, would make daylight saving time permanent across the U.S. (WBAY via YouTube (Green Bay CBS affiliate)).
• The bill passed the Senate unanimously in March 2022 but stalled in the House and never became law.
• In early 2025, Trump reportedly softened his position, telling NBC News the issue is a “50-50 issue” (NBC News via Facebook (national news network)).
• As of 2025, no federal law has changed DST observance (CBS News (national broadcast network)).

Why this matters: the future of America’s timekeeping depends on whether Congress can pass a bill that Trump and a majority can agree on — and with the clock-change dates fixed through at least 2026, the next window for change is narrowing.

“I support making Daylight Saving Time permanent. It’s time to end the antiquated practice of changing clocks twice a year.”

— Donald Trump, via Twitter, March 2019

Legislation to make daylight saving time permanent was expected to go before the U.S. House in summer 2026 with President Trump’s backing.

— WBAY via YouTube (Green Bay CBS affiliate)

The trade-off for Americans is now a political one: keep the twice-yearly reset that most polls say they dislike, or lock in permanent daylight saving time and accept darker winter mornings. President Trump’s evolving stance leaves the outcome uncertain (NBC News via Facebook (national news network)).

For those tracking the shift, the daglights saving time start in 2025 offers a useful comparison of how the dates align from year to year.

Frequently asked questions