Daylight savings time is ending in 2013 on Sunday.
People turn the clocks back an hour beginning at 2 a.m., losing an hour of daylight and gaining an extra hour of sleep (in theory).
The time change has been a subject of debate for almost as long as it has been around, reports National Geographic.
Benjamin Franklin may have been the first to suggest it, after he was awakened at 6 a.m. while serving as U.S. ambassador to France and living in Paris.
The change didn’t come about until World War I, when Germany started it off in efforts to reduce artificial lighting and save coal for the war. Other countries soon followed suit.
In the United States, a federal law standardized the procedure for states that chose to follow.
It’s not required, though. So Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas do not use it.
It was required during World War II, but was made optional again afterward.
In 2007, the U.S. Energy Act extended the daylight saving time for about a month. It began starting on the second Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday in April.
