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The end of 2016 daylight-saving time will fall on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 2 a.m.

At that time clocks will “fall back” and change from 2 a.m. back to 1 a.m.

While some relish the idea of an “extra” hour of sleep, others dread the early nightfalls that standard time brings. However, the days have been getting shorter since the day after the summer solstice on June 20.

The day length will not change drastically with the onset of standard time. For example, Birmingham, Ala., will get 10 hours, 41 minutes and 5 seconds of daylight on Nov. 5 and 10 hours, 39 minutes and 22 seconds on Nov. 6. The big difference will be in the sunset times, which will shift back to near 5 p.m. after the change.

The twice-yearly routine of changing the clocks was enacted by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the times have been altered through the years, but as of 2007 daylight time begins in most of the U.S. on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

We move the clocks back one hour in the fall, and move them ahead an hour in the spring.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the days will get progressively shorter until the winter solstice, which falls on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 4:44 a.m CST. That will be the shortest day of the year.

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