Clocks go forward this weekend – but should daylight savings be scrapped?
The clocks go forward this Sunday, marking the beginning of the daylight saving period.
It will mean the time jumps to 2am as the clocks turn to 1am on 30 March – and yes, bad news, you will lose an hour of sleep.
But the extra hour of daylight will mean longer, lighter evenings from next week.
“Spring forward, fall back” has been part of our calendar for more than 100 years – but whether we should continue the practice is hotly debated.
But why do some people get so up in arms about the clocks changing – and why do we do it in the first place?
Here is what you need to know – including how to prepare ahead of this weekend’s clock change.
Why do we have daylight saving time?
The change to British Summer Time (BST) – also known as daylight saving time (DST) signifies the end of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in the UK.
It lasts from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October, when the clocks go back an hour.
It is common belief that DST was introduced to help give farmers more daylight hours to work in the fields. But this is not exactly true.
George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist – someone who studies insects – first campaigned for more evening sunlight back in the 1890s, so he could study his beloved bugs. It was the first time changing the clocks around the seasons had been suggested seriously.
Jump to 1907 and British inventor William Willett – the man credited with bringing daylight saving to the UK – self-published a pamphlet called The Waste Of Daylight, in which he outlined his frustration with not getting the most out of summer days.
He initially proposed that clocks jump forward by 80 minutes in four incremental steps in April and reversed the same way in September – but he died before any law was implemented in the UK.
The first country to adopt DST was Germany in 1916, during the First World War. The UK followed suit a few weeks later.
The clocks going forward means lighter evenings in the UK. Pic: iStock
How does daylight savings affect your health?
Since the implementation of DST, and particularly the clocks going forward in spring, various studies have found that darker mornings and lighter evenings can cause havoc with some people’s bodies.
In fact, sleep and dream researcher Charlie Morley said there is “overwhelming” evidence of the health issues the switch can cause.
“What research shows is what a massive effect on the body and mind, just one extra hour [of sleep] can have,” Mr Morely told Sky News.
One study cited by the American Heart Foundation found there was a 24% increase in heart attacks on the day following the switch to daylight saving time – however the opposite effect has been identified in autumn, when the clocks go back.
Another from 2016 in Finland found there were 8% more hospital admissions for the most common type of stroke in the two days after the shift to daylight savings.
Researchers also note those suffering strokes and heart attacks were likely to already be at higher risk.
When asked what symptoms losing an hour of sleep can lead to, Mr Morely said: “The interesting thing is when you get a really short amount of sleep, like four hours or less, the fear centre of the brain, known as the amygdala, becomes 60% more active.
“This can make it seem like everything is annoying, threatening or in conflict. So if you lose an hour of sleep, you might see an increase in the amygdala response, making you more grumpy and tetchy.”
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Pic: iStock
Should daylight saving be scrapped?
Whether to keep daylight saving or not has been a hotly debated question for many years, but was reignited in October last year, when the British Sleep Society called on the UK government to abolish the twice-yearly clock changes.
In an article at the time, researchers said due to the negative effect DST has on circadian and sleep health, the UK should abolish the change altogether, and reinstate standard time throughout the year.
In reality, only about a third of the world’s countries practice daylight saving time, according to the Pew Research Center.
US President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last December that he wanted to scrap DST. His secretary of state Marco Rubio has also called the ritual of changing time twice a year “stupid”.
The Greenwich meridian clock at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London. Pic: iStock
The European Parliament has also previously voted for all EU member countries to scrap DST, but after the Parliament and EU Council couldn’t reach an agreement on the legislation, it never became law.
One of the few places that doesn’t follow DST in Europe is Iceland, due to its location and extreme variations in daylight throughout the year.
How to prepare for clock changes and the ‘golden rule’ of napping
Mr Morley says it is impossible to make up for lost sleep, but those worried ahead of daylight saving time can “front load sleep”.
This involves someone getting “really good, quality sleep before entering a period of bad sleep”.
Exposing yourself to natural sunlight first thing in the morning, eating meals based on the time of day it is where you are, minimise the use of caffeine and exercising can also all help treat negative effects of losing an hour of sleep.
Mr Morely added that napping can also be an effective way of dealing with sleep deprivation – but there are some hard and fast rules.
“The two golden rules of napping are it needs to be under an hour, so between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, and the nap needs to end six hours before you intend to go to bed again,” he explained.
“There is a chemical called adenosine, which is known as the tiredness chemical, and it takes around five to six hours to build up. So if you want to go to bed at midnight, as long as your nap ends up 5pm you have got enough time for adenosine to build up, and you will be tired enough to go to bed.”
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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