It's almost time to set your clocks forward an hour in accordance with Daylight Savings Time 2014 (aka "spring forward") in order to better take advantage of sunny hours during the coming warm months. Reuters

Starting Monday, folks in the US will rise an hour earlier as daylight saving time begins this weekend.

Clocks will be set an hour ahead at 2am (0700GMT) Sunday, 9 March to allow for more apparent daylight in the evenings, reports The Baltimore Sun.

The concept of daylight savings was thought of by Benjamin Franklin who proposed the notion after he observed that the sun frequently rose before he did and that the productivity of citizens would increase if daylight hours were shifted to the evening.

"The practice is still under debate, as proponents say it saves energy but critics say it is unnecessary and confusing," states the report. Daylight saving time is not mandated by the US government.

The whole of US does not follow the concept. According to a CBS News report, Hawaii, parts of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas are places that do not observe the time change.

At the cost of an hour of sleep, daylight saving time arrives with the promise of many months ahead with an extra hour of evening light, reports CBS News. It also means the United States is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time instead of five.

As per Michael Downing, the author of Spring Forward, daylight saving time is a boon for retailers. Downing told CBS News last year: "If you give Americans daylight at the end of the work day, they're more apt to shop on the way home."

Daylight saving time ends on 2 November.