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Clocks go back an hour for winter time

The Local Sweden
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Clocks go back an hour for winter time

If anyone was still in denial, Saturday night will make winter time official when clocks are turned back an hour to compensate for the intruding darkness.

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Winter time has been known as "normal time" since around 1870, and Sweden is in line with the rest of the European Union in making the change.

Early birds will however enjoy the extra light on their way to work on Monday, with a day's grace on Sunday to allow the body to adapt to the change. Although the limited afternoon light is cut even shorter.

Despite meteorological appearances to the contrary, summer time in fact stretches for seven months of the year. Come December 22nd the dark tide turns and days start to lengthen again as we head through the new year and on into spring.

Summer time or daylight saving time is not used by most of the world's population, but is common in the northern hemisphere where light hours can shift significantly from summer to winter.

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.

The official change occurs at 3am on Sunday, which will thus become 2am.

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