Spring Forward is approaching!

Spring Forward is approaching!

The dark days of winter are almost over.

Daylight-saving time begins on March 8, 2015. That's this coming Sunday.

That means at 2 a.m. on March 8 you will move your clocks forward one hour.

Spring forward, if you will. You may lose an hour of sleep, but you'll gain a hour of daylight in the evening.

The twice-yearly routine of changing the clocks was mandated 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.

Some history:

*Benjamin Franklin first suggested the idea of daylight-saving time in 1784, according to the Farmer's almanac.

*Germany was the first country to use daylight-saving time in 1916.

*DST was called "fast time" when first introduced in the U.S.

*The "father of Daylight Saving" was Robert Garland, a businessman from Pittsburgh who first came upon the idea in the U.K.

* Daylight and standard time were made the law of the land through the Act of March 19, 1918, also called the Standard Time Act.

*Daylight-saving time was repealed in 1919, but standard time stayed intact.

*Daylight time -- also called "War Time" -- was reinstated early in World War II, and was used year-round from 1942 until 1945. After the war ended so did its standard use, and it varied among states and cities, leading to confusion.

*In 1966, the Uniform Time Act standardized the beginnings and end of daylight time. Daylight time began on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October, with the changeover at 2 a.m. local time.

*In 1974, during the "energy crisis years," Congress created earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974 daylight time began on Jan. 6 and in 1975 it began on Feb. 23. After that the starting time went back tot he last Sunday in April.

*The 2005 Energy Policy Act again changed both the starting and ending dates.

*DST is used by over 70 countries.

*In the Northern Hemisphere, our days will get progressively longer until the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 at 11:38 a.m. CDT.

* Standard time begins again on Nov. 1, 2015.