When does daylight saving time end in 2026?
Daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 2:00 a.m. local time in most of the United States and Canada, when clocks go back one hour to 1:00 a.m. (NIST, National Research Council Canada). In the UK, clocks go back a week earlier, on Sunday, October 25, at 2:00 a.m. (GOV.UK).
| Where | Clocks go back | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Sunday, November 1, 2:00 a.m. | No change in Hawaii, most of Arizona and the US territories |
| Most of Canada | Sunday, November 1, 2:00 a.m. | Set by each province and territory; some local exceptions |
| British Columbia | No change | Permanent daylight time since March 8, 2026; the East Kootenay and Golden area still changes with Alberta (B.C. government) |
| Saskatchewan | No change in most of the province | Central Standard Time all year; the Lloydminster area changes with Alberta |
| Yukon | No change | UTC-7 all year since 2020 |
| United Kingdom | Sunday, October 25, 2:00 a.m. | Back to Greenwich Mean Time |
In Australia, New South Wales turns its clocks back on Sunday, April 4, 2027 (NSW Government); the plan works then too.
Does the fall back time change affect your sleep?
Falling back can unsettle your sleep for a few nights. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) says both the spring and fall time changes can disrupt your sleep schedule and sleep quality, especially if you already have trouble sleeping at night (AASM). Its 2020 position statement calls for ending seasonal clock changes in favor of permanent standard time, the time most of North America returns to on November 1 (Rishi et al., 2020).
Your body clock doesn't jump when the wall clock does. Until it catches up, 10 p.m. on the new clock feels like 11 p.m. to your body, so you may feel sleepy early and wake before your alarm. Most people adjust within a few days (AASM).
Why can't you turn your brain off at night?
Night is often when your mind finally has room for what you set aside during the day. When the day's demands fade, the thoughts and worries you pushed away can surface, and for some people bedtime is the first quiet moment of the day (AASM). This mental overstimulation, often called cognitive arousal, can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep, especially when your mind stays on unfinished tasks or "what if" thinking.
Two things can feed it. Straining to sleep raises alertness, so the harder you try, the more awake you feel, and after a few rough nights bedtime itself can become a worry.
The time change can add to this: for a few nights you may wake earlier than you'd like, with your mind already going. If overthinking follows you all day, see our guide to self-hypnosis for overthinking and racing thoughts.
How do you stop racing thoughts at night? Try this 10-minute wind-down
You can't order racing thoughts to stop, but you can stop following them: sleep specialists suggest gently moving your attention to something neutral, such as your breath, rather than chasing silence (AASM). Here is one way to quiet your mind before sleep. Do it at home, never while driving.
- Write it down. Before bed, spend five minutes writing a specific to-do list for the next few days. Then close the notebook.
- Lights low, phone away. Dim the room and put your phone out of reach.
- Settle. Lie down, let your eyes half close, and breathe out slowly, a little longer than you breathe in, five times.
- Count down. Count slowly from 10 to 1. With each number, let your jaw, shoulders and hands soften a little more.
- Picture your place. Imagine somewhere you feel safe and unhurried: its colors, its sounds, the temperature of the air.
- Let thoughts pass. When a thought pulls you away, name it in one word, such as "planning" or "replaying", and come back to your place. There is nothing to get right.
- Get up if sleep doesn't come. Still wide awake after about 20 minutes? Get out of bed, do something relaxing in dim light and go back when you feel sleepy (AASM).
Steps 3 to 6 use the basics of self-hypnosis: relaxation, focused attention and imagery (see our FAQ). Prefer a voice to follow? The 2am Brain is a free NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) session from Mind Refuge (mindrefuge.ca), recorded by certified hypnotherapist David Boulet. Its night version (about 18 or 25 minutes) has no wake-up at the end, so you can drift into sleep. A personalized Mind Refuge sleep session is coming soon: get notified.
How do you adjust to falling back? Follow this 7-night plan
Start four nights before the change: move bedtime and dinner 15 minutes later each night, set the clocks back on Saturday evening, then keep a steady schedule. UK readers start on Wednesday, October 21.
| Night | US and Canada | UK | Bedtime | Next morning | Wind-down |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed, Oct 28 | Wed, Oct 21 | 15 minutes later than usual, dinner too | 15 minutes later, if you can | To-do list, then the wind-down |
| 2 | Thu, Oct 29 | Thu, Oct 22 | 30 minutes later | 30 minutes later, if you can | Wind-down |
| 3 | Fri, Oct 30 | Fri, Oct 23 | 45 minutes later | 45 minutes later, if you can | Wind-down |
| 4: clocks go back | Sat, Oct 31 (Halloween) | Sat, Oct 24 | Clocks back in the evening; usual bedtime on the new clock | Usual wake time; if you wake early, keep lights low | Wind-down or The 2am Brain, night version |
| 5 | Sun, Nov 1 | Sun, Oct 25 | Usual time; aim for at least 7 hours | Same wake time; get outside for morning light | Whichever helped most |
| 6 | Mon, Nov 2 | Mon, Oct 26 | Usual time | Same wake time and morning light; no extra caffeine late in the day | Wind-down |
| 7 | Tue, Nov 3 | Tue, Oct 27 | Usual time | Same wake time and morning light | Keep what worked |
Already sleeping less than seven hours most nights? The AASM suggests skipping the later bedtimes: on Saturday, go to bed at your usual time, set the clocks back just before bed, wake at your usual time and keep that bedtime, now an hour earlier by the clock (AASM).
Why can this plan help?
The schedule follows the AASM's advice for the fall change and uses light and darkness, the most powerful timing cues your body has (AASM). The to-do list has some evidence behind it: in a sleep-lab study of 57 healthy young adults, those who spent five minutes writing a to-do list fell asleep faster than those who wrote about tasks already done, and the more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep (Scullin et al., 2018). It was one small study: a promising habit, not a proven fix.
The evidence on hypnosis and sleep is promising but limited. A 2018 systematic review of 24 studies found that 58% reported a benefit on sleep outcomes, 12.5% had mixed results and 29% found none; the authors pointed to small samples, few studies of people with sleep complaints and low methodological quality (Chamine, Atchley and Oken, 2018). Those studies tested hypnosis, not NSDR recordings or Mind Refuge sessions: think of a recording as a calm routine, not a treatment.
What if you still can't sleep after the time change?
Trouble sleeping at night that lasts for weeks is worth raising with a doctor. Sleep specialists suggest getting help especially when sleep problems happen at least three nights a week, last three months or more and affect your days; about 1 in 10 adults has chronic insomnia (AASM).
If you're searching for how to fix insomnia that has lasted that long, the recommended first step is not a sleep audio. The American College of Physicians recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia, a strong recommendation based on moderate-quality evidence (Qaseem et al., 2016). CBT-I works on the thoughts and habits that keep you too alert at night; ask your doctor about it. A recording like The 2am Brain can be a calm part of your evenings alongside that care, not instead of it.