Clocks Fall Back Nov. 1, 2026: When Daylight Saving Time Ends in Boston

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, when clocks in Boston and across Massachusetts fall back one hour to 1 a.m. The change gives Bostonians an extra hour of sleep that night, but it also moves sunset from about 5:39 p.m. on Halloween to about 4:37 p.m. the next day, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

When exactly do the clocks change?

Under federal rules summarized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time on the first Sunday of November. At that moment local time becomes 1 a.m., so the 1 a.m. hour repeats and Sunday lasts 25 hours. In 2026, daylight saving time ran from March 8 to Nov. 1, NIST says.

Clocks spring forward again at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March, which falls on March 14, 2027. The current schedule dates to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which took effect in 2007 and lengthened daylight saving time by about a month. It now covers 238 days, or about 65 percent of the year, according to NIST.

What to reset

• Phones and computers update on their own if the operating system is current. NIST notes that its internet time services send Coordinated Universal Time and rely on the device’s software to apply the change.
• Radio-controlled clocks that receive NIST’s WWVB signal should switch automatically. If one shows the wrong hour, NIST suggests checking that it has synced recently and that its time zone is set correctly.
• Older “auto-set” clocks built before the 2007 rule change may switch on the wrong date and need a manual reset.
• Microwaves, ovens and car dashboards usually need to be changed by hand.

Boston sunrise and sunset after the change

The Naval Observatory’s sun and moon data service gives these times for downtown Boston (42.36° N, 71.06° W). Times through Oct. 31 are Eastern Daylight Time; times from Nov. 1 on are Eastern Standard Time.

Two patterns stand out. Boston’s earliest sunsets come in early December, around 4:11 p.m., not on the Dec. 21 winter solstice. Mornings keep getting darker after that, with sunrise sliding past 7:10 a.m. by late December and into January. Civil twilight, when there is usually enough natural light for most outdoor activity, ends about half an hour after sunset.

What the earlier dark means for commutes

For many commuters, the first week of November is when the evening trip home moves into darkness. By mid-November, sunset arrives before 4:30 p.m., so walkers, cyclists and drivers leaving work at 5 p.m. will be traveling after dark for the rest of the year. The flip side is brighter mornings in the first weeks after the change: on Nov. 1, sunrise comes almost an hour earlier on the clock than it did the day before. Leaf-peepers looking for late color have less afternoon light to work with; our fall foliage and apple-picking guide lists spots close to the city, and our ice skating guide covers rinks with evening sessions.

Can Massachusetts stop changing the clocks?

States have limited options. Under the Uniform Time Act, a state may exempt itself from daylight saving time by state law, which would mean staying on standard time all year, the U.S. Department of Transportation says. A state that observes daylight saving time must begin and end it on the federally set dates. Permanent daylight saving time would require a change in federal law. The DOT, not NIST, regulates daylight saving time and time zones.

Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not observe daylight saving time, according to the DOT. About 673,000 Bostonians, the Census Bureau’s July 2025 estimate for the city, will make the switch along with the rest of the state.

Daylight saving time was first introduced in the United States in 1918, NIST notes.

Sources

• NIST: Daylight Saving Time Rules
• U.S. Naval Observatory: Sun and Moon Rise/Set data for Boston
• U.S. Department of Transportation: Daylight Saving Time
• U.S. Census Bureau: Vintage 2025 city and town population estimates