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So, here we are again. That strange, slightly disorienting moment of the year has arrived, when the clocks shift and nobody can quite remember whether we’re gaining an hour or losing one. Let’s settle it right now: this weekend, we’re gaining. The UK is officially saying goodbye to British Summer Time (BST) and easing into Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the colder, darker months creep in. At 2am on Sunday morning, the clocks will fall back by one hour, turning 2am into 1am. That means you get an extra sixty minutes tucked into your night, which is perhaps the only silver lining to the arrival of winter. For those of us who live for long, light-filled evenings, it’s a bittersweet transition. The days have already been shrinking, but this change makes it official: the sun will set earlier, the evenings will close in, and the morning alarm will feel even crueler when you wake up in the dark. There’s a coziness to it, too, of course. The end of British Summer Time is sort of a national signal that it’s acceptable to hunker down, wrap up warm, and lean into all things slow and snug. But before we get too poetic about it, let’s talk about the practical stuff. Most modern devices — phones, laptops, smartwatches, smart speakers — will update themselves automatically while you sleep, so you’ll likely wake up to a phone that’s already sorted itself out. But older devices, like the clock on your microwave, the radio alarm in your bedroom, or that weird little digital display on your oven, might need a manual nudge. Don’t forget them, or you’ll spend the next few months showing up to things an hour early or late, trying to figure out why your kitchen clock is lying to you.
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The most immediate, tangible effect of the clocks going back is, of course, sleep. On Sunday morning, you’ll likely wake up feeling more rested than usual, even if you stayed up just as late as you normally do on a Saturday night. That extra hour is a small gift from the universe, a tiny buffer against the tiredness that seems to accumulate through the working week. But here’s the thing about gaining an hour: it doesn’t always feel like a genuine bonus. Our bodies run on an internal rhythm, and while the clock on the wall jumps back, your brain doesn’t quite operate on such a simple schedule. You might find yourself waking up at what feels like your usual time, only to discover it’s actually an hour earlier. Or you might enjoy the lie-in but still feel a bit groggy and out of sorts by Sunday evening. Then comes Monday, and with it the reality of commuting in the dark. The evening light that used to linger after work or school suddenly vanishes. If you’ve been making the most of a post-dinner walk, that ritual becomes harder. If you rely on natural light to boost your mood, you might feel the shift more than you expect. Health experts often suggest using the transition to reset your routine: get outside in the morning, even for ten minutes, to help your body anchor to the new schedule. Keep your sleep and wake times fairly consistent, resist the urge to nap too long on Sunday afternoon, and you’ll adjust more smoothly. But honestly, the most human way to cope is to simply embrace the extra hour, enjoy a slow breakfast, and let your body catch its breath before the darker season truly takes hold.
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Once the clocks have gone back, the UK will remain on Greenwich Mean Time for what feels like a very long stretch of winter. It runs all the way until March 28, 2027, which is the last Sunday of March. That’s the date when everything flips again and we “spring forward” into British Summer Time, losing that precious hour of sleep in exchange for lighter evenings. Mark it in your calendar now if you want to mentally prepare yourself. But for now, GMT is where we’ll be living. It’s the UK’s standard time, the baseline from which all the time zones around the world are calculated. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has been the spiritual home of this system for well over a century, and there’s something rather comforting about being back on that steady, traditional rhythm. The next few months will be characterized by short days and long nights, frost on car windscreens, early streetlights flickering on, and the strange pleasure of seeing stars before you’ve even finished your dinner. Some people dread this part of the year. Others secretly love it — the excuse to light candles, drink hot chocolate, and cancel plans without guilt. Either way, there’s no stopping the calendar. The clocks have made their decision, and we’re all just along for the ride. When March finally rolls around, the return to British Summer Time will feel like a victory, a promise that the light is coming back. But until then, we settle into GMT and all the quiet, cozy rituals that come with it.
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If you’ve ever wondered why on earth we still do this — why we bother changing the clocks at all — you’re not alone. It’s one of those traditions that feels both ancient and oddly modern. The usual name attached to the idea is Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor and statesman. Back in the 1780s, while living in France, Franklin wrote a playful letter suggesting that people could save candles by waking up earlier and making better use of daylight. He didn’t actually propose changing the clocks; it was more of a satirical observation about how wasteful it is to sleep through the morning sunshine. But his whimsical idea planted a seed. It wasn’t until the early twentieth century that someone took it seriously and campaigned for real change. That someone was a British builder named William Willett, and here’s where it gets delightfully human: Willett was apparently annoyed that his round of golf was being cut short by the sun setting too early. So he spent years lobbying Parliament to shift the clocks forward in summer and back in winter, publishing a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight” and arguing endlessly about the benefits of more evening sunshine. Sadly, Willett never saw his idea become law. He died of influenza in 1915, just one year before Daylight Saving Time was actually adopted — not by Britain, but by Germany, during the First World War. The Germans wanted to save energy for the war effort. The UK quickly followed, and soon most of Europe was doing the same. There’s a lovely, slightly odd footnote to all of this: Willett is the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay. So every time the clocks change, you can think of a man who just wanted to play golf longer and ended up changing the course of history, with a famous musician carrying his DNA.
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The story of why we change the clocks is really a story about energy, light, and human habits. In the early days, the rationale was simple: during wartime, saving coal and electricity mattered, and shifting daylight to later in the day meant people didn’t need to light their homes as much in the evening. It was practical, economical, and seemed like a no-brainer. But here we are, more than a century later, and plenty of people are questioning whether it still makes sense. Our lives have changed dramatically. We’re no longer as tied to the sun as we once were. We have energy-efficient lighting, flexible working hours, and screens that glow at all hours. Some studies have suggested that the clock change disrupts sleep, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in the days afterward, and does little to actually save energy. Others argue that the extra evening daylight in summer is good for mental health, encourages outdoor activity, and supports retail and tourism. Every year, there’s a fresh round of debate about whether we should just pick one time and stick with it. Some countries have already abolished the practice, while others keep toying with the idea. But for now, the UK remains committed to this twice-yearly ritual, a shared national experience that happens to everyone at exactly the same moment. There’s something oddly bonding about it, too. On the last Sunday of October, every household in the country is in the same boat, adjusting the same clocks, resetting the same ovens, and muttering the same words: “Is it forward or back again?” It’s a collective little adventure, a quirk of history that we’ve all agreed to live with, at least for a while longer.
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So as Sunday morning rolls around, do yourself a favor. Let the extra hour wash over you. Don’t fight it, don’t overthink it, and definitely don’t spend it trying to be productive. Sleep in, or wake up early and enjoy the rare luxury of a quiet, unhurried morning. Make a proper breakfast, read a few pages of a book, sit by the window and watch the world slowly wake up. Then, when you’re ready, go around the house and check every clock that hasn’t updated itself. Battery-powered wall clocks, car displays, that old alarm clock with the red numbers — they all need a little human attention. And while you’re at it, take a moment to appreciate the changing seasons. Yes, the evenings are about to get darker, and November can feel like a long, gray tunnel. But there’s also something deeply comforting about this shift. It tells us that the year is winding down, that it’s okay to slow down with it, and that soon there will be holidays and twinkling lights and the promise of a fresh start. The dial on the wall might move backward, but time keeps moving forward, and there’s a strange beauty in that. By March 28, 2027, when the clocks spring forward once more and British Summer Time returns, we’ll be ready for the light. But for now, embrace the darkness, wrap yourself in something warm, and enjoy the extra sixty minutes. You earned them. After all, time is a construct, but a good night’s sleep is very, very real.
