When do the clocks go back?

Pop a note on your calendar — the clocks will go back by one hour at 2am on Sunday 25th October 2015.

You'll get to enjoy an extra hour in bed (hooray!) and it will also be lighter in the mornings.

The clocks go back on the last Sunday in October each year to mark the end of British Summer Time (BST) and to take the UK back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

QUIZ: Famous clocks from around the world

How well do you know these famous timepieces? Try our quiz below:

Question -1 of 12 Score -0 of 0
Let's start with an easy one — which London clock is this?
Big Ben - the clock on the Houses of Parliament
Big Ben - the clock on the Houses of Parliament

Photo credits: Flickr Creative Commons — Kaizer Rangwala, Samira, Aotaro, Anguskirk, Mirsasha, Kirsty Johnson, Tetrabrain, Andy Hay, Scott Beale, West Annex News, Tim Ellis.

Why do we change the clocks?

British Summer Time, also known as Daylight Saving Time, was first introduced by William Willett in 1907 to make use of the daytime and prevent wasting it first thing in the morning during the summer. He published a pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight in a bid to get people out of bed earlier in the summertime by changing the nation’s clocks.

He then spent the rest of his life trying to convince people that his scheme would work — he died in died in 1915 and his clock-changing plan still hadn’t been put into place. But in 1916, Germany introduced the scheme and Britain followed on 21 May 1916.

Fall back on Sunday October 25

Willett wasn't the first person to suggest changing the clocks. In 1895 an entomologist in New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, presented the idea to the Wellington Philosophical Society and successfully trialled a daylight saving scheme in New Zealand in 1927.

Next year the clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March at 1am, meaning we lose an hour of sleep. This is designed to make better use of the long sunlight hours over the summer months.