Daylight Savings Time Tonight

In the overnight hours tonight, March 13, clocks will skip the 2 a.m. hour for the Daylight Savings Time tradition. The entire United States will join you in the biannual time change with the exception of Hawaii and Arizona.

(More on TIME.com: See a brief history of time zones)

Much of the world implements a sort of “summer time,” an idea originally birthed with the intention of extending daylight in the evening in an effort to conserve fuel and energy. While there is no global standard for Daylight Savings Time, most of Europe and North America honor the fall back/spring ahead tradition.

The practice is, expectedly, most beneficial for nations farthest from the equator that are affected by the seasonal rotation of the earth. But the U.S. and Canada, in springing ahead tonight, will lead Europe by two weeks in the switchover.

(More on TIME.com: See the 2007 law that changed DST rules)

The effects of Daylight Savings Time have long been in dispute, but supporters include convenience stores and sporting goods retailers, who helped lobby for the four-week extension of Daylight Savings Time in the U.S., passed in 2007. They argue that the extra sun at the end of the day encourages people to shop and participate in sports after work. But that can happen only after we recuperate from the lost hour of sleep.