Time To Fall Back

October is characterised by that cosy autumnal feel. Leafy, golden-brown hues, Halloween and gradually darkening evenings all signal the changing season and oncoming winter. But the growing darkness isn’t just an occurrence of seasonal change; it’s partly the result of the long-standing, and sometimes controversial, practice of changing the clocks.

How Do The Clocks Change?

The idea of changing the time deliberately and on a national scale seems somewhat absurd, when time itself is a matter of physics. However, it’s the human measure of time which is, in fact, adjusted, in accordance with the seasons. Known as British Summer Time (BST), changing the clocks is a mechanism to capitalise on the increased summer daylight hours in the northern hemisphere. BST begins when the clocks ‘spring forward’ one hour in the spring in March, and ends in October, when the clocks ‘fall back’ by one hour.

Daylight Savings

The American statesman, inventor and scientist, Benjamin Franklin, suggested the idea of summer time in 1784, but it was British William Willet who published the pamphlet ‘The Waste of Daylight’ in 1907. He proposed daylight savings time after becoming infuriated by the waste of daylight during the summer mornings. Germany was the first country to adopt daylight savings in 1916, followed by the UK a few weeks layer. The system was soon implemented by other countries worldwide.

Time For Change?

Since its introduction, there has been ongoing controversy surrounding the benefits of BST. British Double Summer Time was temporarily introduced during the Second World War to increase productivity, while the clocks were put forward and not put back in an experiment between 1968 and 1971, but this was discontinued. Since then, campaigners have argued that permanent BST would save energy and increase the available time in the evenings, but this was opposed by arguments that it would create social disadvantages in the North, where darker mornings would leave children travelling to school in darkness.

Overall, despite the fact that most of our homes and workspaces are well lit, regardless of daylight, the benefits of daylight savings include reducing energy consumption, longer evenings for leisure, exercise and tourism, and reducing road accidents. So, for the time being at least, British Summer Time is here to stay.

Reference

Royal Museums Greenwich. (2024), When do the clocks go forward in 2025? Source: rmg.co.uk

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