Daylight saving time is quickly approaching, meaning Marylanders will soon have to adjust their clocks (and lose one hour of sleep) when time “springs forward.”

Daylight saving starts on the second Sunday of March, which is the 9th this year, and ends on the first Sunday of November. This year, that will be Nov. 2.

Some connect this yearly ritual to Benjamin Franklin, though he merely suggested the idea to Parisians to save on candles and lamp oil, according to the Franklin Institute. Others credit the Englishman William Willett, who suggested in 1907 reducing four Sundays by 20 minutes to stop “the waste of sunlight.”

In the United States, Congress first tried the idea in 1918 during World War I but repealed it shortly after the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress tried it again during World War II, though it ended nationwide after that war. President Lyndon Johnson finally signed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to standardize daylight saving time across the country.

Who oversees this?

The Department of Transportation is responsible for overseeing the nation’s time zone. According to the DOT website, states may exempt themselves from observing daylight saving time but do not have the authority to adopt daylight saving time permanently.

Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only states that do not observe it.

U.S. territories, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, don’t observe daylight saving either.

Have states tried to change this format?

About 31 states are considering or have considered bills related to daylight saving time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. So far, the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill that will permanently adopt standard time, exempting the state from daylight saving time.

In Maryland, Del. Joshua Stonko, a Republican from Carroll County, recently sponsored a bill that would make the state permanently follow Eastern Daylight Time. The bill is awaiting approval with an effective date of July 1, if agreed upon.

Have a news tip? Contact Shaela Foster at sfoster@baltsun.com.