Clocks fall back Sun, Nov 1

On Sunday, Nov 1, 2026, at 2:00 a.m., clocks in most of the US go back to 1:00 a.m. That is plain arithmetic: 7:30 pm by a child's body on Saturday is 6:30 pm on Sunday's clock, and a 6:30 am wake-up by their body clock reads 5:30 am on the new clock.

The plan moves bedtime later on the old clock until Saturday is one hour later. Then the clock does the rest: 8:30 pm by Saturday's clock is the same body time as 7:30 pm by Sunday's, so Sunday is the usual bedtime with no jump.

15-minute steps take four nights, Wednesday to Saturday (+15, +30, +45, +60); 10-minute steps take six, Monday to Saturday. Splitting the difference moves 30 minutes on Saturday and lets the clock make the other half-hour. All at once changes nothing before Sunday.

Started late? The step becomes 60 minutes divided by the nights left, rounded up to 5 minutes: on Thursday, 20 minutes a night for three nights. With only Saturday left it is a split; from Sunday on, all at once.

With "Let mornings drift later too" on, each wake-up moves with the night before. It starts off for ages 6 to 8 because of school mornings. Naps move by the same minutes as bedtime.

What the AAP, AASM and a hospital sleep program say

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests starting about a week before and moving naps and bedtime "a few minutes each day". The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests starting two to three nights before and moving 15 or 20 minutes a night; its page is written for the spring change, so we use it only for the general step size. OSF HealthCare's sleep medicine director says the body "can handle 15-minute changes fairly well" and, in the fall, suggests going to bed about 15 minutes later each night. Other parents simply switch on Sunday. The sources don't agree, so the planner lays the methods out and lets you choose.

“For younger children, start nudging naps and bedtime in the direction the clocks will be changing a few minutes each day. Ideally, start this process about a week before the time change.”

“In the fall, this means going to bed about 15 minutes later each night ahead of the 'fall back' transition.”

Phones vs. the other clocks

Phones and computers change on their own at 2:00 a.m.; the oven, the car and most wall clocks don't. The calendar file adds a 9:00 pm Saturday note about them, and its reminders use floating local times, so they ring at the printed time on both sides of the change.

Places where the clock doesn't change

Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands stay on standard time all year, so there is nothing to shift. In Arizona the Navajo Nation does change its clocks, so the planner asks one question there. A family in two places at once (say, custody across a state line) should plan for the house where the child sleeps on Saturday.

For the sunset side of the same Sunday, see How dark at 5 pm after Nov 1.

Is permanent daylight saving time happening?

The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 (H.R. 139) passed the U.S. House on July 14, 2026 (308–117) and was sent to the Senate Commerce Committee on July 15, 2026. It has not become law, so clocks still fall back on Sunday, Nov 1, 2026. We checked the bill's status on Oct 22, 2026.

H.R. 139 on Congress.gov (opens in a new tab)