You might have noticed that while it’s still cold and miserable outside, we are getting a little bit more daylight than we were this time last month.
And that means we’re coming closer to the time when the clocks go forward, bidding farewell to those long dark winter nights for another year as spring gets underway.
We still have a little bit longer to go, mind – but just when do the clocks go forward
Here’s what you need to know…
When do the clocks go forward this year?
The date the clocks change is different every year as they traditionally go forward on the last Sunday in March and go back on the last Sunday in October.
This year the clocks will go forward at 1am on Sunday 29 March – and they won’t go back again until Sunday 25 October.
So you’ll miss an hour’s sleep that night – but hopefully all that extra daylight in the evenings will make up for it.
Why do the clocks change?
Clocks change by one hour twice a year in spring and autumn – or, if you want another way to remember it, you can use the American English mnemonic ‘spring forward, fall back.’
The practice of changing the clocks in the winter months came about to give us more daylight in the mornings.
The government brought in British Summer Time in World War I to improve the economy by giving farmers an extra hour of sunlight to work in.
However it was Coldplay singer Chris Martin’s great-great-grandfather William Willett who came up with the idea of British Summer Time back in 1907.
Willett spent much of his life trying to convince people they should get up an hour earlier in the spring to make the most of the brighter mornings – although he died just before it was introduced in 1916.
However the idea of changing the time system has been around for centuries – it’s believed that even the Romans did it.
MORE: Are you struggling with circadian misalignment?
