With the recent one-hour change to our winter clock many of us have been feeling very tired due to the lost hour. So, what are the origins of this practice and do we really need it? 

The idea of clock changing, moving our clock an hour forward or backward, at the beginning of the summer and the winter was first thought of by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, however at that point it never got any recognition. It resurfaced in 1895 when William Willett campaigned in Britain to change the clocks forward for the summer. It’s thought he was annoyed that his golfing would be interrupted by the sun going down, so he wanted to change the law to make sure there would be more daylight into the evening. He was unsuccessful with his campaigning and died in 1915 due to influenza. The deciding factor for the clock change came in the spring of 1916, during World War One. The German army took the decision to move clocks forward as a way of conserving energy during the war. This led to many European governments, including the U.K., doing the same.  

We may understand how the clock change came into being, but do we feel it is necessary in the modern day? One perspective is that by changing the clocks we make better use of natural daylight thereby saving energy. It also allows us to make best use of the daylight in summer for outdoor activities which provide benefits to our health. However, by losing an hour of sleep each March we end up being more tired for a brief period after the clock change in the Spring. One of the positives to the autumnal fall back of an hour is that it provides farmers more daylight in the winter mornings and everyone else gains an hour's sleep for one blissful weekend. A shame it can’t happen every weekend! 

Whatever your view of the practice it has been with us for a while now and whilst it is often debated around the time that the changes occur there does not appear to be any significant move to stop our annual tinkering with time.