Britain will enjoy an extra hour in bed when the clocks go back at 2am on Sunday, officially ending British Summer Time.

If you’re a night worker, your shift this weekend will obviously be a little longer and if you have children or pets, that probably won’t make a difference.

Popular myths claim that changing the clocks would benefit farmers or improve road safety for early morning commuters, but the practice dates back more than 100 years when the Summer Time Act was established in 1916 after a successful campaign from a builder, William Willett.

Willet wanted to turn the clock back 80 minutes in steps of 20 minutes per week on Sundays in September, and vice versa in April. This move was made during the First World War to save fuel and has persisted ever since, despite the fact that lighter mornings and longer evenings provide no real benefit.

Those in favor of adjusting the clock claim that daylight in the morning increases productivity, but this is undermined by the fact that it can drop by around 20% during the summer months, when there are an average of seven more hours of daylight than in the summer. winter.

Those against turning the clock backwards and forwards point to the interruption of sleep patterns, which can cause health problems.

It’s also worth remembering that what October brings an extra hour of sleep, March takes away as the clocks go forward.

It doesn’t look like this situation will end anytime soon.

In March 2019, the European Parliament scrapped clock changes, giving member states the opportunity to decide which daylight zone they stay in. However, reform has been temporarily put on hold and Britain shows no signs of time standing still.