Autumn is here and Halloween is fast approaching. The days are getting shorter and the nights longer.

It's that time of the year when people start asking: "Do the clocks go back tonight?"

British Summer Time 2021 ends later this month, with the clocks going back one hour on the final Sunday of October.

This year that falls on Halloween – Sunday, October 31, 2021, meaning an extra hour in bed.


When do the clocks go back?

In the UK, clocks go forward one hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March.

When the clocks go forward in March, we lose an hour's sleep.

Clocks go back one hour at 2am on the final Sunday in October, meaning we gain an hour in bed.

British Summer Time 2021 ends and the clocks go back on Sunday, October 31, 2021, at 2am.

Most modern technology, such as smartphones and laptops, will change the time automatically.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Clocks go back an hour from 2am to 1am on Sunday, October 31, 2021 when British Summer Time officially ends.Clocks go back an hour from 2am to 1am on Sunday, October 31, 2021 when British Summer Time officially ends. (Image: Alan Davies)

British Summer Time (BST) is the period when the clocks are one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

During this period, there’s more daylight in the evenings, and less in the mornings.

This is sometimes called Daylight Saving Time.

When the clocks go back an hour – as they do this year at 2am on Sunday, October 31, 2021 – the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

BST is GMT +1 hour.


So when do the clocks change in 2022?

Clocks go forward on Sunday, March 27, 2022, when we move to British Summer Time again.

According to www.gov.uk, the clocks go back in 2022 on Sunday, October 30.


When do we gain an hour or lose an hour?

An easy way to remember whether clocks go forward or back is that they 'spring forward' on the final Sunday in March (turn clocks ahead and we lose an hour) and they 'fall back' (turn clocks back and gain an hour) on the last Sunday in October.

The dates are slightly different in America. Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the USA starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

Daylight Saving Time ending in the United States this year falls on Sunday, November 7, 2021.