Fall back: Daylight saving time ends tonight and you get an extra hour of sleep

Another year of daylight saving time comes to an end tonight, which comes with both pros and cons.

Many would tell you that the biggest pro is the extra hour of sleep they'll get when the clocks roll back for most British Columbians at 2 am on Sunday.

The other main positive of daylight saving time ending is that the sun will rise an hour earlier in the mornings.

However, the con that will leave most a little bummed out is the opposite end of that, as it will now get darker earlier in the evening.

It means sunset will be around 4:30 pm starting Sunday and many British Columbians will begin a months-long stretch of leaving work in the dark next week.

But the main question that continues to be asked is whether this is the final time we will put the clocks back to end daylight saving time.

The simple answer is…maybe? The entire west coast is essentially waiting on the United States House of Representatives at this point.

In 2019, BC passed legislation to stop changing the clocks and permanently be on daylight saving time, but it was conditional on Washington, Oregon and California following suit.

All three states have taken steps to make this happen, but require federal permission to do so and that’s where the hold up is.

The US Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022, which would permanently end the seasonal time change across the country.

However, it still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives and signed by the president before it can become law.

Unfortunately, it did not pass in the House, which means it never made it to President Joe Biden's desk and the bill is currently in limbo.

As a result, we continue to change our clocks twice a year and that will happen for the final time in 2024 tonight.

With the American election next week and Biden officially leaving office in January, we’ll have to wait and see what the next US administration can accomplish on the matter.