When does daylight saving time start in 2020? How to spring forward on March 8

It's almost time to spring forward! Daylight saving time 2020 begins at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, March 8, meaning you'll set your clock to 3 a.m. at that point.

Contrary to popular opinion, daylight saving time doesn't last for half the year. Rather, it stretches approximately eight months and will come to an end on Sunday, Nov. 1. It's been that way since 2007, when Congress declared that daylight saving time begins in the United States on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

The observance is often misidentified as "daylight savings time" with an extra "S," but its name comes from the idea of saving daylight. Click here for more facts about daylight saving time.

Check out these fast facts about daylight saving time.

That being said, daylight saving time isn't observed the same way -- or at all -- in some parts of the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized time zones and daylight saving practices around the United States, but it allowed individual states to pass laws exempting themselves. Click here to learn more about places in the country where you don't have to fall back or spring forward.

If the tradition of falling back and springing forward is too much to bear, there are plenty of other places where you don't have to bother with daylight saving time.

If you're not in one of those places, the spring forward can be an especially difficult one when you lose an hour of sleep. Click here to find out how to help your body make the adjustment to the new light-dark cycle and how to make sure you get a good night's sleep every night of the year.