Don’t forget to “fall back” and check smoke detectors this weekend.

On Sunday, Nov. 2 at 2 a.m., time will revert back to standard, giving everyone an extra hour to sleep in.

Since 2007, the time change has reverted to standard time on the first Sunday of November and changed to daylight savings time on the second Sunday of March.

Hence the phrase, “Fall back, spring ahead” to help people remember which way to turn their clocks during what season.

Daylight savings is also a good reminder for people to check smoke alarms in their residences to ensure they’re working properly.

Energizer and the International Association of Fire Chiefs, or IAFC, are partnering to encourage families to change the batteries in smoke alarms and CO detectors, a task that doubles a family’s chance of surviving a home fire, according to a news release by the program.

“The habit of changing batteries during Daylight-Saving Time is an easy task that can be the difference between life and death,” Chief Jeffrey D. Johnson, president of the IAFC, said in the release.

A home fire death occurs approximately every three hours in the United States, killing 540 children each year, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association.

Ninety-six percent of families in the U.S. have smoke alarms, but 19 percent of the detectors do not work, Johnson said. A smoke alarm provides extra time for people to escape a fire so it crucial that batteries are changed often.

Prior to 2007, daylight savings time in North America began on the first Sunday of April and concluded the last Sunday in October.

The change to extend daylight savings time by one month was proposed in a small section of the 551-page Energy Policy Act of 2005 in the United States’ Congress. The act targets energy efficiency and was signed into law by former U.S. President George W. Bush.

(David Livyoson – YWN)