When the clocks go back in 2024 and why we do it every year

A woman asleep in bed with an alarm clock on the bedside table
-Credit: (Image: Time4Sleep/Pexels)


Grim and gloomy weather with grey skies, torrential rain and chilly temperatures have made the change of seasons seem very obvious and sudden - although there doesn't seem to have been very much of a summer before that. This is a clear sign that the second annual changing of the clocks can't be very far away.

The Autumnal Equinox on September 22 marked the astronomical event where the sun crossed the equator and headed south, with day and night being almost of equal length. This was the turning point after which the days start to get shorter.

It's already been getting noticeably darker earlier in the evenings and changing the clocks will be the final sign we are heading deeper into autumn and towards winter. So when will that be and what does it mean?

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Sunset was at 9.30pm at the start of July and had moved to 9pm at the end of the month. By the end of August, sunset was around 8pm and now it's just before 7pm. Through October, the onset of night-time will keep getting earlier and will then take a sudden jump when the clocks are changed.

We will move from British Summer Time back to standard Greenwich Mean Time and if you remember the old saying 'spring forward, fall back', you'll know that the clocks go back every autumn.

When do the clocks go back in 2024?

Clocks are traditionally put back by one hour on the last Sunday in October. As it's always on the last Sunday rather than a set date, it doesn't necessarily fall right at the very end of the month and so the date varies each year. In 2024, the clocks will go back on Sunday, October 27.

The usual time to do it is at 2am on Sunday morning but unless you are staying up into the early hours, most people make the alteration when they go to bed on Saturday night. The change means that 2am becomes 1am and you will gain an hour. So you can enjoy an extra hour in bed on the Sunday.

It's worth remembering that if you forget to change the clocks, you will end up going to work (or attending any other commitments) an hour too early on the Sunday.

Thankfully, electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers will adjust themselves automatically. But it still means changing other things in the house like clocks on the wall or mantelpiece, bedroom alarm clocks, and the digital display on the microwave. Some car clocks update immediately, some may take a short time to do so after you next turn the ignition, so be sure to check or things could get a bit confusing.

The disadvantage of changing the clocks is that it will get dark even earlier in the evenings. The trade-off we get for it being dark much earlier is having lighter mornings.

Sunset is around 6.45pm at the start of October, slowly moving to 5.50pm because of natural seasonal changes just before the clocks have to be put back. And then, after the clocks change, sunset will be an hour before that. It will then carry on getting even earlier until the Winter Solstice on December 21, before starting to move in the other direction.

Precise astronomical calculations for Birmingham show that on Saturday, October 26, the day before the clocks go back, sunrise is at 7.53am and sunset at 5.48pm. After the clocks change overnight, sunrise on Sunday, October 27, is at 6.55am and sunset at 4.46pm. We will all notice the sudden difference.

Why we put the clocks back and when it all started

The aim of British Summer Time (BST) - also called Daylight Saving Time - is that we can enjoy more daylight in the summer months. The system then reverts to normal as summer ends, the days naturally grow shorter and we head into winter.

The idea of BST was proposed on several occasions when it was noticed people were wasting their day by still being asleep during the daylight of summer mornings. Changing the clocks would make people get up earlier in summer, give them longer evenings and also save energy and money because household lighting wouldn't need to be switched on so soon in the evening.

Benjamin Franklin is the first notable person who is recorded as mentioning the idea, in a letter he wrote in Paris in 1784. Franklin, who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and drafted the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, said people should be made to get up an hour earlier by waking them with church bells and cannons.

The idea re-emerged in 1895 when New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson suggested clocks should go forward by two hours every summer. And then a builder called William Willett - the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin - campaigned in Britain to change the clocks so there would be more light in the evening. In 1907, he published a pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight.

However, despite the proposal getting the support of Winston Churchill and being looked at by a parliamentary committee, nothing was done until the German army turned the clocks forward to conserve energy in the spring of 1916, during the First World War.

Many other European governments soon followed suit - including the UK. A bill was passed in Britain on May 17, 1916, and the clocks were advanced by an hour on the following Sunday, May 21. Tragically, William Willett did not live long enough to see his idea become reality as he had died of influenza in 1915.