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Spring is finally here, the clocks have gone forward and despite longing for this day since last September it’s hard to believe it’s only an hour that has been stolen from a good nights sleep.
But why do we change the clocks? Who’s really responsible for stealing our precious sleep time? Well we’ve got William Willett to thank for this yearly ritual, a keen horserider who felt we were wasting precious hours of daylight during the Summer months and thought people should be up earlier and making the most of their days.
The first country to adopt this was Germany in 1916 closely followed by Great Britain; a year after the death of William Willett and his pamphlet ‘The Waste of Daylight’. There were long experiements over a number of years where the clocks would be kept at Daylight Saving Time to see if there had been any advantages to staying ahead of Greenwich Meantime. The results showed yes and no, but as there are strong protests whenever the governement propose staying in Daylight Saving Time we continue to put our clocks back to Greenwich Meantime during the Winter months or British Standard Time as it’s also know.
So now you know who you’ve got to thank for the extra daylight during the Spring and Summer months, but the ongoing question is should the time remain ahead or should we continue this yearly ritual of moving forwards and backwards?
