When do the clocks go back in the UK?
The clocks change this weekend, marking the end of British Summer Time. Here’s when it happens and what it means for those darker evenings ahead.
As an expat, I’ve always found the ritual of changing the clocks oddly disorienting.
There’s something unsettling about the twice-yearly dance with time, a reminder that even something as fundamental as the hours on our wall feels different depending on where you call home.
Spring forward, fall back
For years, I could never remember which way the clocks were supposed to go. Forward? Backward?
The whole thing felt arbitrary until someone shared a simple trick that finally made it stick: In spring, the clocks “spring forward,” which means in autumn, specifically October, they must go back.
But the question remains: When exactly?
This weekend: the last Sunday in October
In the UK, the clocks always change on the last weekend of October.
This year, that means this coming weekend. At 02:00 on Sunday morning, the clocks will go back one hour to 01:00, marking the official end of British Summer Time (BST) and the return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The pros and cons
The practical upside?
An extra hour in bed on Sunday morning, a rare gift that feels almost luxurious.
The downside? The evenings will suddenly feel much darker, much earlier.
By late afternoon, it’ll already be getting dim, and the long stretch of winter darkness truly begins.
For those of us who’ve moved to the UK from countries that don’t observe daylight saving time, or that change their clocks on different dates, this transition can feel particularly strange.
It’s one of those small cultural adjustments that catches you off guard, a reminder that you’re living by a different rhythm now.
So this weekend, remember to set your clocks back before you go to bed on Saturday night.
Or don’t, your phone will probably do it automatically anyway.
Either way, enjoy that extra hour of sleep and brace yourself for the darker evenings ahead.
And don’t forget you’ll have a jumbled diary…
And for those of you running businesses, managing teams, or keeping in touch with family back in South Africa? Your diary has just been jumbled around.
That carefully coordinated meeting schedule suddenly needs reworking as the time difference shifts.
Welcome to the expat life.