Time To Move Your Clocks Back!

It’s the time of year when we prepare to change our clocks by moving them back an hour. The immediate benefit to this is that we all get an extra hour in bed, which in the cold autumn and winter months is particularly appreciated.

The second benefit is that we get more sunlight in the morning for a short period of time, particularly ideal for commutes that occur earlier in the morning. It also means that for many people they can wake up with the sun instead of darkness, which can often lead to being more alert so early.

Sunday 29^th October is officially the day that the clocks will go back an hour and the exact time that they will go back is at 2am. This also means that we are no longer in British Summer Time and will instead revert back to Greenwich Mean Time.

We thought we’d take a quick look at the history of Daylight Savings Time and why it is often done, as well as provide some useful tips to make the change in time simple and easy.

An Old History For Daylight Savings Time

For the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom, we will have all grown up experiencing time jumping forward and back twice a year. But it was originally suggested by the famous American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin.

Perhaps better known today for being one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he was also a renowned inventor who helped to invent lightning rods, bifocals and much more. In 1784 he made a joking suggestion to make use of natural morning light by getting up earlier. He did not explicitly suggest the concept of Daylight Savings Time as it is today though.

Britain officially adopted Daylight Savings Time in 1916 following the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.

Make Sure To Update Your Clocks

Most technology today will automatically update itself as long as it is connected to the internet. You can usually check these settings in your phone to make sure that your phone will update. This means that at 2am, the time on your phone, laptop, computer or tablet should change by itself so there is nothing that you will have to do.

For manual clocks or alarm clocks that do not have a daylight savings mode, you will need to remember to change these clocks manually. Many cars will also require their clocks changing so it is important to ensure that this is changed as well to prevent any accidental confusion!

Keeping track of time is particularly important in the workplace, so make sure to change any clocks in the office before you leave on Friday. For the office there is a large range of Clocks available on OPInfo, so why not take a look to make sure all your time keeping is easy.