“Spring Forward Fall Back”: Don’t forget to change your clocks tonight!

Every year the clocks change twice, in March and October, and tonight is the night for them to go forward this year. This means at 1:00am on Saturday night / Sunday morning they go forward an hour to 2:00am, meaning that partygoers lose an hour out on the town, and all of us lose an hour in bed.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) Change:

When it happens:

The clocks always go forward on the last Sunday of March to make use of the extra daylight hours in spring and hopefully save energy as lights don’t need to be switched on as early as it gets dark later. Many people remember which way the clocks change by saying: “Spring forward, fall back”.

How it's done:

The clocks move forward by one hour, meaning we lose one hour of sleep. At 1:00am, the time will become 2:00am, and it will be darker later in the morning, but we'll have an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Which time zone does it affect:

During the seven months of Daylight Saving Time, Spain operates in the UTC +2 time zone (Canary Islands in the UTC +1 zone).

How does it affect us?

The time change can disrupt your metabolism and cause fatigue. Our bodies feel this change; for instance, our work schedule remains the same, so our biological clock suffers, resulting in a misalignment where we end up waking up an hour earlier than usual, disrupting our sleep routine. Consequently, we don't get enough rest, leading to fatigue, lethargy, and even irritability in people.

It's a similar effect to jet lag when travelling to a country with a different time zone. The most affected by this time change are children and the elderly, as they have a higher sensitivity to hormonal changes.

When will the time change again?

Like the rest of the European Union, the Canary Islands will revert to standard time during the early hours of Sunday, October 27th, 2024. On this date clocks will go back by one hour, allowing for an extra hour of sleep and a return to darker evenings.

Does everyone change their clocks?

The simple answer is yes, however, there is one municipality in Spain that refuses to do so. The town of Tobarra, in Albacete, has decided to stay one hour behind the rest of Spain and is refusing to change their clocks… all be it for just a few hours!

As part of the Holy Week (Easter) festivities, hundreds of people in the municipality play the drums continually for 104 hours from 4:00pm on Holy Wednesday until 12:00pm on Easter Sunday.

But because changing the clocks would officially mean they had only played for 103 hours, the people of Tobarreños have decided to postpone the time change until 2:00am on Monday when they will go forward and fall in line with the rest of the country.

The Tobarra City Council explained: “If we changed the clocks on Sunday morning it would mean the alteration of one of the greatest signs of our cultural identity as a community.”

Drummers in Tobarra