A very simple daylight savings explainer: What am I doing with my clocks and when?

It’s this time of year we start hearing whispers about daylight savings.

Something, something, CLOCK. Something, something, stays light for longer.

That’s all very well and good but some of us can’t remember when we gain an hour and when we lose an hour, and what exactly we’re meant to do with our clocks.

Here’s a very simple rundown. Ahem.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of going forward one hour during the warmer months of the year and occurs in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

If you’re from Queensland, the Northern Territory or Western Australia, your clocks stay the same and it’s recommended you don’t do… anything with your clocks. Because that would become very confusing.

DST takes place at 2am on the first Sunday in October, which this year will be October 7.

Basically, the clock goes from 1:59am, to 3am, which means we all lose an hour of sleep – the last thing any of us need.

The purpose of having DST is that we make better use of the daylight in the warmer months. According to some research, DST even saves energy because it doesn’t get dark until later.

According to research out of the United States, who also have DST, the crime rate drops as well as the incidence of traffic accidents as a result of DST.

Well that sounds GREAT.

Now go forth and share the news: You’re moving your clock forward and losing an hour of sleep.