Don't forget to change the time on your clock so you aren't late to work.

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Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, which means we lose one hour of sleep.

At 2 a.m. on Sunday we will ‘spring forward’ an hour.

Observing Daylight Savings Time is not mandated by the federal government, so people sometimes get left out of the loop and may show up to work or school and hour later than they should have. Remind your neighbors and friends this weekend that the time will change on Sunday.

Changing your clocks on Saturday evening will help prevent forgetting and being late.

According to National Geographic, while serving as U.S. ambassador to France in Paris, Franklin wrote of being awakened at 6 a.m. and realizing, to his surprise, that the sun would rise far earlier than he usually did. Imagine the resources that might be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil, Franklin, tongue half in cheek, wrote to a newspaper.

Although not mandated, the federal government standardized the beginning and end of Daylight Savings Time in 1918.

Writer Brian Handwerk for National Geographic said, “During World War II the U.S. made daylight saving time mandatory for the whole country, as a way to save wartime resources. Between February 9, 1942, and September 30, 1945, the government took it a step further. During this period daylight saving time was observed year-round, essentially making it the new standard time, if only for a few years.”

Residents of Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico won’t be observing the time change, and remain on standard time year-round.

In 1966, the Uniform Time Act outlined that clocks should be set forward on the last Sunday in April and set back the last Sunday in October. That law was amended in 1986 to start Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April, though the new system wasn’t implemented until 1987. The end date was not changed, however, and remained the last Sunday in October until 2006. On Monday August 8, 2005 President George W. Bush signed into law a broad energy bill that extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks beginning in 2007.

— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 15, or by email at dkurry@heartlandpublications.com.