Clock change 2025: When do clocks go forward in March 2025 in UK and do you gain or lose an hour of sleep?

Every year in March, the UK clocks go forward an hour to symbolise the change of seasons and they go back an hour in October for winter.

We are now seeing more sun and longer days following the spring equinox in the early morning of March 20, 2025.

Here is everything you need to know about the clock change in March 2025.

When do clocks go forward in 2025?

The clocks currently run on British Summer Time (BST), also known as Daylight Saving Time, after they go forward for spring.

After the clock change there will be more daylight in the evenings and less in the mornings.

In the UK, the clocks will go forward an hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March (March 30).

A common saying is used to remember this: spring forward, fall backwards. ‘Fall’ is the American term for autumn.

Will we gain or lose an hour’s sleep?

When clocks go forward an hour, we will lose an hour of sleep.

So 1am will become 2am instead.

Why do clocks go forward for the summer?

In the beginning of the 20th century, a campaign was set up that fought to change the clocks during summer months.

The initial movement tried to prove that those people living in the northern hemisphere could make the most of the earlier daylight hours if the clocks changed during the summer.

William Willett was an early advocate for British Summer Time and was also the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin.

William published a pamphlet in 1907 titled ‘The Waste of Daylight’ which argued in favour of changing the clocks in the spring and putting them back in the autumn.

He died in 1915, a year before the Summer Time Act was passed in Parliament.