Daylight Saving Time 2026 — What To Know In Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS — The sun is set to stay out a little later in the evening with daylight savings time around the corner.

Clocks will jump ahead one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 8. With the time jump implemented, the sunrise that morning is expected to occur at 7:07 a.m., and the sunset will occur at 6:42 p.m., marking 58 and 61 minute changes from the expected times of March 7.

There’s a chance it could be the last time Massachusetts residents “spring forward,” as the practice on the second Sunday in March has become known, as efforts have been made to change the practice in government.

The “lock the clock” debate that gave hope to fans of year-round daylight-saving time faded quickly. The Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022, but it has since been stalled by disagreements over whether to adopt daylight saving or standard time as the year-round permanent time.

Massachusetts has yet to have any legislation passed, but currently has a pending declaration brought forth that would exempt the state from changing to daylight savings time.

President Donald Trump said in a December post on his Truth Social platform that “the Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”

This past fall, Senator Ed Markey (D, Massachusetts) spoke out in favor of enacting a permanent daylight savings time to maximize sunlight for the entirety of the year.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 established time zones and temporary DST, an idea first widely adopted in Germany as a fuel-saving measure in World War I. Called “war time,” it was in effect from February 1942 to September 1945. After the war, states and cities set their own policies, resulting in widespread confusion that led to the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which established daylight saving time in effect from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.