Clocks go forward to welcome in the summer

The change will mean darker mornings and lighter evenings.

Summer time or daylight saving time is not used by most of the world’s population, but is common in the northern hemisphere.

Sweden introduced summer time in 1980 and since 1997 all EU countries switch on the last Sunday in March.

Sweden however first dabbled with summer time back in 1916 but the trial was discontinued as so many farmers complained of problems milking their cows.

One of the original reasons for introducing the temporary change in the spring was to save on lighting and, while controversial, is regarded to have benefits for retailers and traffic safety.

Despite meteorological appearances to the contrary, summer time in fact stretches for seven months of the year and the clock are set to be turned back to normal time at 3am on the morning of October 30th 2011 – the last Sunday in October.