Moving the clocks forward heralds a few things each year: the beginning of the warmer weather, longer evenings — and usually a little general havoc.
People show up to appointments either extremely early or extremely late, depending on if they've remembered to change their clocks at all or have got confused about whether time is shifting forwards or backwards.
Parents of young children have the pain of trying to convince their kids that it is in fact bedtime, even if the sun is still blazing outside.
And sleep cycles are impacted, potentially affecting people's physical and mental well-being. Some health experts in the US have even linked this change in time to an increased risk of things like heart attacks, strokes and car accidents.
So, why do we do this to ourselves every year?
A history of daylight saving in Aotearoa
Daylight saving starts at 2am on the last Sunday of September and ends at 3am on the first Sunday of April, giving us 27 weeks of daylight saving annually.
But it's taken a few twists and turns to land on this current system.
Daylight saving lore has it that an entomologist by the name of George Hudson first came up with the theory of shifting the clocks forward. He was apparently keen for more time in the day to collect insects.
Hudson initially presented his idea for shifting the clocks forward to the Wellington Philosophical Society all the way back in 1895.
This idea eventually gained some traction, culminating in the Summer Time Act of 1927, when New Zealand first observed daylight saving time.
In 1941, daylight saving was extended to cover the whole year round as part of emergency regulations to conserve energy during World War II.
That time, which was 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), was eventually adopted as New Zealand Standard Time in 1946, effectively ending the country’s first experiment with daylight saving.
New Zealanders then had a reprieve from changing the clocks twice a year until the 1970s, when the global energy crisis prompted the official reintroduction of daylight saving in 1975. The rationale was that longer summer evenings would mean fewer lights needing to be switched on.
And New Zealand has not looked back since. In fact, the annual period of daylight saving has been extended a few times since the '70s.
The argument remains that shifting the clocks forward each year avoids wasting sunlight in the early hours of the day when many people are still asleep.
What does the rest of the world do?
Around 70 countries currently observe daylight saving time, usually those who are closer to Earth's poles and more at the mercy of seasonal variation in daylight hours.
But some countries are moving to end the annual clock changes, aruging that adopting permanent daylight saving time would improve lives and boost the economy, with people staying out later and spending more money.
The Sunshine Protection Act has been introduced in the US to make daylight saving time permanent there, but it's yet to pass into law.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament voted to stop changing the clocks in the EU back in 2019, however it still hasn't received the approval it needs from the European Council to make that official.
In recent years, a lobby group known as Take Back the Clocks has been pushing for New Zealand to adopt permanent daylight saving time, too. A petition they launched in 2021 about the issue has reached around 3000 signatures.
But, regardless of anyone's thoughts about daylight saving, the clocks are still changing this weekend.
So, are the clocks moving forward or back on Sunday?
They are moving forward one hour this weekend.
Will my phone know that Daylight Saving is happening?
Your smartphone should automatically adjust to the correct time, but you can check its settings to make sure.
For Android users: Go to Settings, System, Date & Time, then make sure it has Set Automatically switched on.
For iPhone users: Go to Settings, General, Date & Time, then make sure Set Automatically is toggled on.
What if I'm at work when the clocks change?
If you happen to be at work when the clocks go forward, you'll be working an hour less, but the law says you're still entitled to be paid for your usual hours on that shift.
For the rest of you, best to just get ready for the usual adjustments to waking up an hour earlier (and accept that the kids' bedtimes are a write-off for the foreseeable).
SHARE ME