Days before they head to the polls, most Americans will face something almost as contentious as this year’s presidential race: daylight saving time (often called daylight savings time).

The twice-yearly changing of the clocks (spring forward one hour in spring, fall back one hour in fall) boasts a strange and colorful history including death cheaters, draft dodgers, and a 20th-century superpower that forgot to change the clocks for 60 years.

And recent polls confirm that a growing number of people despise it. This year alone, a dozen U.S. states attempted to end the annual ritual.

“I think the principal annoyance is that it's confusing,” says Tufts University professor Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.

Yet