WITH the month of October almost over, the days are getting shorter and shorter with winter just around the corner.
It means the date clocks go back across the UK is just around the corner, giving us an extra hour of sunlight as we approach darker months.
Here is everything you need to know about clock changes in the UK this year.
When does the hour go back?
In autumn the clocks will go back at 2.00am on the final Sunday of October, which this year falls on Sunday 30 October.
It means an extra hour in bed for your Sunday lie-in and will give an extra hour of daylight as the darker nights roll in.
Do I need to change the clocks myself?
In the majority of cases, the days of manually changing your clocks are long gone.
Any device connected to the internet such as smartphones, televisions, laptops and tablets will change automatically.
However – be careful – alarm clocks, car radios and other devices not connected to the internet will need to be adjusted manually.
To avoid confusion over the time, there is a simple saying from the US to remember when to change your clock forward or back: “Spring forward, fall back."
Why do we change the clocks?
The principal reason we change the clocks is to get the most out of the daylight.
The first clock change was introduced by the German government in 1916 during the First World War as a means of saving energy – the longer the daylight hours lasted, the less electricity required.
Many European governments followed suit, including Britain, and so was born BST, with the current system in place since 1971.
