Daylight saving ends this weekend. When will it get dark in Boise after clocks fall back?

Since the clocks changed in March, Boise, along with most of Idaho, has been running on Mountain Daylight Time. But starting this weekend, that will change.

This year, the end of daylight savings time falls on Sunday, Nov. 3. At 2 a.m. that day, clocks will revert to standard time, turning back to 1 a.m.

Idaho has already been losing daylight quickly as the calendar inches towards the winter, and the clock change means the sun will set an additional hour earlier.

How quickly will it get dark in Boise?

Recently, the sun has been setting around 6:40 p.m. in Boise. In the week that follows the time change, the sun will set around 5:30 p.m., according to TimeAndDate.com.

By the end of November, that number will fall to 5:09 p.m. The earliest sunsets of the year, expected at 5:07 p.m., fall on the week of Dec. 8 — while the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the earliest sunset.

Tips for adjusting to the time change

According to advice published by Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, it’s easier to adjust to the fall time change than the one in the spring, but it can still throw off your body’s daily rhythm.

To ease the transition, they recommend easing into a later sleep schedule in the days leading up to the time change. In the days after the change, eating early dinners, avoiding caffeine and increasing exposure to light in the evenings can help as well.

Why is daylight saving still going?

There has been a nationwide push to end the annual clock changes associated with daylight saving. Back in 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, but the bill never made it to a vote in the House.

In Idaho, the situation is a little more complicated, and depends on its neighbors. In 2019, Washington passed a bill to switch to daylight saving time full-time. The following year, Idaho passed a law saying that the northern parts of the state that operate on Pacific time would switch to daylight saving time year-round whenever Washington’s law takes effect.

However, federal law doesn’t allow states to use daylight time year-round, although they are allowed to use standard time year-round. So until Congress allows the change, Washington’s proposal can’t take effect, meaning the northern portion of Idaho still changes its clocks twice a year.

There have also been statewide efforts to end the time change. Earlier this year, a bill was proposed that would put Idaho on standard time year-round. It passed the House on a vote of 46-23, with one abstention, but didn’t make it out of committee in the Senate.

This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 3:24 PM.