Clocks forward: don't forget we lose an hour's sleep this weekend

These pupils from Winstanley Community Primary School were on hand this week to remind Wigan residents that at 1am on Sunday March 31 the clocks move forward an hour as we pass from Greenwich Meantime to British Summer Time.

It means that it will be darker in the mornings for a while again but also that sunset will suddenly be after 7.30pm.

There have been campaigns to keep both GMT and BST all the year round. In favour of year-round GMT is the fact that morning light is thought to help wake us up and to improve alertness while reducing the chance of morning rush hour road smashes.

When it is lighter in the evenings under BST, studies suggest we spend more time outside taking exercise or on other recreational activities, and less time engaged in sedentary indoor activities such as watching TV.

There doesn’t seem to be much appetite to stick permanently to either at the moment though.