The clocks have gone forward in Scotland (Image: Pexels)
BRITISH Summer Time (BST) officially started on Sunday when the clocks went forward one hour.
It marks the end of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and will mean longer spells of daylight into evenings.
It may seem like a minor adjustment, but it could have a bigger impact on health than previously thought.
Here is everything you need to know about why and when the clocks go forward, as well as the impact on your body.
When did the clocks go forward?
The clocks go forward at 1am on the last Sunday in March. This year that fell on March 29. BST, or daylight saving time (DST), lasts until the final Sunday in October, when the clocks go back an hour.
When was daylight savings introduced?
Despite popular theories, daylight savings was not introduced to help farmers.
Many dairy farmers actually complain that it disrupts their schedule, unsettling cows which struggle to cope with the change.
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DST was first proposed by builder William Willett in 1907, in a pamphlet called The Waste Of Daylight, which outlined his frustration with not getting the most out of summer days.
He initially proposed that clocks jump forward by 80 minutes in four steps in April and reversed the same way in September. He died before any law was implemented in the UK, but his great-great-grandson, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, has seen it in action.
The first country to adopt DST was Germany in 1916, during the First World War. The UK followed suit a few weeks later.
Does every country change their clocks?
No, most countries do not observe DST. Only about a third of countries change their clocks in spring, and most are in Europe and North America.
In the last decade, Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Namibia, Russia, Samoa, Syria, Turkey, Uruguay and most of Mexico have all stopped the seasonal time changes, according to the Pew Research Centre.
What are the benefits of daylight savings?
Extended evening daylight has many benefits, and not just around improving people’s mood in the lighter evenings.
DST has been shown to reduce crime due to increased visibility in the evening, boost the economy as people engage in outdoor activities for longer and decrease energy consumption.
How does the time change impact our health?
Dr John O’Neill, molecular biologist and cellular rhythm expert from the Cambridge-based Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said there are “small but significant” risks because of the time change.
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Dr O’Neill said: “It does not really serve much of a benefit to anybody these days, whilst exposing us to a small but significant series of risks.
“It is like everybody in the country gets an hour’s jet lag, all at the same time. You see an increase in incidence of heart attacks and strokes, and you do get an increase in the number of road traffic accidents for a few days after clocks change.”
Dr O’Neill said incidences of heart attacks and stroke increase because our bodies anticipate daily activity at certain times, and when the clocks change our physiology is not primed and ready.
He said: “If you place all of those burdens and demands on, for example, the cardiovascular system, an hour earlier, then it is just not quite as well prepared to satisfy the demand, so in people that are a bit older or a bit less healthy, it increases their risk of an adverse event, a heart attack or a stroke.”
Should daylight savings time be abolished?
Polling in recent years suggests that Britons would prefer to stay on BST if the time changes were scrapped.
YouGov published a poll in October showing that if our current system was axed, 59% of Britons would opt for the country to stay permanently on BST.
Dr O’Neill argued the clock changes should be stopped.
He said: “I’m sure it was extremely useful for our forebears 100 years ago, but there is quite a strong argument for just having permanent daylight saving these days.”
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