Did you remember to put your clock forward?

Photo: Journeaux

Clocks going forward - extra light in the evening

The clocks went forward at 1am today (Sunday 31 March) as British Summer Time begins.

British Summer Time is the practice of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less.

It was first proposed by William Willett in 1907. He published a pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight, outlining plans to encourage people out of bed earlier in summer by changing the time on the nation’s clocks.

He spent the rest of his life fighting to get acceptance of his time-shifting scheme.

He died in 1915 with the Government still refusing to back BST. But the following year, Germany introduced the system. Britain followed in May 1916, and we have been 'changing the clocks' ever since.

Proponents generally argue that it saves energy, promotes outdoor leisure activity in the evening, and is therefore good for physical and psychological health, reduces traffic accidents, reduces crime, or is good for business.

Opponents argue that actual energy savings are inconclusive, that it can disrupt morning activities, and that the act of changing clocks twice a year is economically and socially disruptive and cancels out any benefit.

The change of the clocks in spring has been linked to a host of ills from heart attacks to car crashes.

Sleep expert Yvonne Harrison of Liverpool John Moores University says that while the hour change was once seen as being "of little consequence, a growing body of evidence suggests otherwise".