Spring forward, fall back: it's that time of year again

Editor's note

Daylight savings ends on Saturday night, and if you’re like some of us here in The Conversation's office (I won’t mention names), this might be the first time you’re learning just that. For some, it’s nothing more than an extra hour of sleep, but for parents it spells an inevitable evening struggle when it comes to bedtime. We asked Jon Quach from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute for some handy hints on resetting your child’s body clock.

Also, 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson told Americans they had to push their clocks ahead by an hour for the nation’s first experiment with daylight savings. In turn he probably made a few enemies among the country's priests – it was Easter Sunday, which meant his decision led to a lot of latecomers to church services.

Molly Glassey

Newsletter editor

Please, just go to sleep!

Children need different amounts of sleep but should aim to wake feeling rested, without an alarm. Juninatt/shutterstock

Start resetting your kids' body clocks before daylight saving ends – here's how

Jon Quach, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

The shift from daylight saving time will leave kids' body clocks an hour "out of sync", in a similar way to jet lag. Here are some evidence-based strategies to deal with this.

The history of daylight savings

Unfortunately, there’s not an unlimited amount of daylight that we can squeeze out of our clocks. igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com

100 years later, the madness of daylight saving time endures

Michael Downing, Tufts University

The original arguments Congress made for 'springing ahead' have been thoroughly debunked. So why are they still being used by legislators today?

Spring forward, fall back

Spring forward, fall back: how daylight saving affects our sleep

Leon Lack, Flinders University

Daylight saving time ends this weekend in most states and territories (barring Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory), meaning we’ll turn our clocks back by one hour on Sunday morning…

Daylight saving can boost the economy but Australia needs to make it uniform

Andrew C. Worthington, Griffith University

Daylight saving has economic benefits, but this breaks down in the days before and after we change, as well as across borders between states that do and don't have it.

The environmental case for keeping the clocks on summer time – all the time

Philipp Grünewald, University of Oxford

Daylight savings time means our most active periods are better aligned with daylight hours.

Is daylight saving time worth the trouble? Research says no

Laura Grant, Claremont McKenna College

Advocates say daylight saving time saves energy and wins wars. But studies show that injuries and illnesses rise when the clocks change. Some states may end the practice; others could make it permanent.