UK Clock Change

I love the clocks changing. OK not so much the weekend when we 'lose' the hour at BST but love the lighter evenings and anyone who claims to care about climate change must welcome the better timing, and consequent use of the daylight hours in summer.

gentleshores

I mean - does anyone actually like it? I don't think so!

I like it - in both March and October, I find that I am naturally waking up earlier/ later in the weeks leading up to the changing of the clocks, so I am really pleased when the official time changes to match that.

fancythat

gentleshores

I mean - does anyone actually like it? I don't think so!

I do

Me too. An extra hour in bed the first day, and lighter mornings than would otherwise be the case for the whole winter is all good.

argymargy

It always amuses me when this topic comes up (which it does every year) and some people think that by messing about with clock times THEY CAN CREATE MORE DAYLIGHT!! Sorry for shouting but it is so ridiculous. Winter daylight hours cannot be lengthened, no matter how much you moan about it.

It is all because the earth is not flat! It isn't even straight, but turns daily on its tilted axis, and as it goes around the sun in its yearly cycle that axis stays tilted at the same angle - so in half of the year the northern half of the earth gets more sun that the southern part, resulting in a northern summer and a southern winter, in the other half the southern part gets the bigger share, resulting in a southern summer and northern winter.

I wonder how flat-earthers explain the changing seasons? It must tax their powers of imagination to come up with an explanation.

I fall asleep reading and if waken early I read again. I can be awake about 4 am, terrible sleeping but I get the kindle out and usually nod off again. Can't recall the last time I went to bed at 10 pm, usually 12.30 - 1 am.

The subject comes up soemwhere or other every year. And has done for decades.
And every year it stays the same as always.
No matter how many debates there are.

gentleshores

I mean - does anyone actually like it? I don't think so!

I do

It always amuses me when this topic comes up (which it does every year) and some people think that by messing about with clock times THEY CAN CREATE MORE DAYLIGHT!! Sorry for shouting but it is so ridiculous. Winter daylight hours cannot be lengthened, no matter how much you moan about it.

The best cure for the clocks-back-an-hour blues is to invest in a SAD light. There are lots of them on the market, at various proce levels. The Independent has a review list of ten of them at www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/gadgets-tech/best-sad-lamps-light-therapy-seasonal-affective-disorder-lumie-how-to-treat-a6839106.html

It's fine by me. Elegran says it all. Nothing changes except what we decide to call it. The waning light wanes.

And the "natural time" is, in fact, the winter clock time. Summer time is the unnatural one.

Actually changing the clocks doesn't affect the gradual changing of the times of sunset and sunrise. The relative lengths of the day and night are almost exactly the same on the day before the clocks are changed and the day after.

If you put a label on a jar of marmalade that says "Strawberry Jam" you don't change what is inside the jar - it is still marmalade. Changing the label on the clock to say that is an hour earlier today than it was at the same natural time yesterday only changes what time you are calling it.

If you were living in a cave thousands of years ago with no handy alarm clock to tell you to wake up, you would open your eyes to another slightly colder, darker world and think to yourself "I hate when the sun goes away sooner and comes back later. It is so damn cold and dim, and so much harder to catch food animals."

What makes so many people feel more tired is having less sunshine, and what little there is is less bright and less warming.

I love it when the clocks go back because I know it heralds a time of longer nights.I find I sleep much better in the longer, darker nights or at least I can get back to sleep if I am awake in the night. In the summertime I only sleep for a few hours because of the light despite blackout blinds. The actual changing of the clocks as such doesn’t really affect me.

Yes I do. I like the longer summer evenings.
I like the lighter winter mornings too - for as long as that lasts.

Like Elegran mentioned, if I wake up early for the first few weeks after clocks back I get up and get on. Our dog is also a fan.
I must admit I wasn’t so keen to do that when I was still working full time.
The alarm went off at 6am. Waking and getting going at 5am didn’t appeal so much.

In answer to gentleshores it truly doesn’t bother me so I m happy with it as it is I really don’t notice any difference, after remembering to change my one clock and one watch 😂

No my body automatically changes I go to bed about 11 pm listen to the radio or play games for an hour ish I always wake by 4am, summer and winter and again listen to radio do puzzles and get up at 6 or half past.
Body seems to find that normal whatever the season is

I mean - does anyone actually like it? I don't think so!

I hate it - it really messes me up. I remember a period of I think it was three years in the late sixties where they experimented not changing the clocks and I loved it. I've never forgotten it and long to have things more natural again - gradually get lighter and gradually get darker.

Oh yes I’m having a terrible time since we changed the clocks. Like water meadow I’m awake between 4/5 and can’t stay awake after 8pm.
The only reason I’m still awake now is because we’ve been out and didn’t come home until 7pm. I’ve also lost my appetite and feel exhausted !

Winter clock time is actually the REAL time - Greenwich Mean Time. This means factually that when the sun is at its highest over Greenwich, the clocks are set to show 12 noon In summer the clocks are put forward an hour so that they show the time when the sun is at its highest over Greenwich as 1 pm. The summer working day is doctored to start (and finish) at an hour earlier by clock-time than it really is by sun-time. In winter the clocks are put back to show the time as what it would have been if it hadn't been changed at the start of summer.

Here is an idea for those who don't like the winter timings - change the clocks to conform with the rest of the country, but not the timings of your day There is no law that says you must stay in bed because the clock says it isn't yet time to get up! If you wake at 5 instead of 6 and know you won't go back to sleep, then get up and get started. If you are ready to go to bed at 9 instead of 10, then do so. Eat when your stomach says it is time.

The animals are right, the clocks are not in charge. The days are shorter in winter anyway, and the nights are longer and darker, but that is not the fault of the clocks, it is because we are nearer to the north pole than to the south pole, and the earth is tilted so that the north gets less sunlight in the winter.

Changing the clocks affects me for a fortnight everytime and I hate it. I’m wide awake at 4 or 5 and desperate to get to bed by 8 in the evening. The animals and I want all our meals an hour before the clock says it’s time.
Apparently it has to be done otherwise it’s not light in Scotland until 10 in the morning.

Bazza

I used to think we shouldn’t change the clocks until a five year experiment in the sixties, and it was so awful that I don’t moan anymore about the inevitable inconveniences like changing all the clocks. Not many people seem to remember it, but I promise it did happen!

I remember it well and I didn't find it awful. I preferred it like that.

And a survey revealed that there were more accidents.

I too remember that. It was so depressing and felt like we were permanently in the dark.

I remember that Bazza.
Walking to school and back in the dark was creepy.
My mum used to complain, “The lights are never off!” Which didn’t help with the electricity bills. It went dark earlier in summer too if I remember correctly.