Daylight saving time concludes: What would happen if we didn’t adjust our clocks?

If you’re outside of a couple of specific states, you might have noticed that your digital clock is now an hour behind. Daylight saving time officially wrapped up at 2 a.m., marking a return to standard time that will last for several months.

The U.S. has had a pretty contentious relationship with the clock-changing routine twice a year. Though there have been attempts by both state and federal lawmakers to address this, we’re right back at it again this year.

Since the second Sunday in March, we’ve been enjoying the longer days of daylight saving time. But this shift can sometimes have negative effects on our health. For the next four months, we’ll experience the shorter days of Standard Time.

Interestingly, many legal efforts aimed at seasonal time changes are focused on sticking with daylight saving time permanently. In fact, ten states already have laws in place to make that happen, should the chance arise.

If you happen to live in a place that observes daylight saving time year-round (meaning your clocks never revert to 2 a.m. on Sunday), you’ll likely see a noticeable change in your daily life—especially regarding sunrise and sunset.

For instance, let’s picture you residing in Chicago. On Saturday, November 1st, the sun rose at 7:23 a.m. But when daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 2, that changes to 6:25 a.m., with sunset happening just before 4:45 p.m. In standard time, you’ll have bright sunlight while heading to work, but your return trip might be in the dark.

As the weeks pass, sunrises in Chicago will gradually get later, peaking at a sunrise of 7:18 a.m. in early January. Then, sunsets will become even earlier, hitting 4:19 p.m., but this trend will flip around early to mid-December. These changes will continue until March rolls around and daylight saving time resumes.

But if we stopped changing the clocks altogether, the sun would rise much later—around 8:18 a.m. in January instead of 7:18 a.m.—and it would set later, at about 5:19 p.m. instead of 4:19 p.m.

The following table shows the latest sunrises and earliest sunsets in various U.S. cities when standard time is in effect, along with what those times would look like if we observed daylight saving time all year.

Now, this is just the clock that has changed so far. If Congress doesn’t act swiftly (previous efforts have stalled), we’ll find ourselves adjusting the clocks again on Sunday, March 8th.