How Do You Remember the Time Change? We're Looking for the Best Mnemonics!
Daylight saving time returns—will you spring forward or fall back?
Can we sleep in longer this weekend—or not? These (helpful) tricks might just save the day.
This Saturday night, it's happening again: we're changing the clocks. And even though this happens twice a year, most of us still forget whether we get an extra hour of sleep or lose one.
So we asked around the newsroom for the best mnemonics to remember the time change. Turns out, though, most of us are just as clueless.
Toggi's trick only works if you speak English:
Spring forward, fall back.
—Patrick Toggweiler
Then, of course, there are the perpetually distracted:
Get up on Sunday. Notice nothing. About a week later, wonder why the oven clock is wrong.
—Oliver Baroni
One especially popular trick involves garden chairs:
Daylight saving time = Put the chairs outside = Move the clock forward Standard time = Bring the chairs back inside = Turn the clock back
—Vroni Fehlmann
Okay, so the chair's in place. Now what? Are we at Bad Bunny's halftime show?
The glass is half empty, you said?
The pessimist in me just assumes I'll lose an hour. That way, I can only be pleasantly surprised.
—Michael Shepherd
Alright, enough with the pessimists. How about sunset, anyone?
I always think about sunset—how after the time change, it suddenly happens later, like at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m., which means we move the clock forward.
—Kilian Marti
To see that, though, you'll have to stay up later in the summer.
And then there are those with a strong sense of fairness:
In autumn, it gets colder and darker, so it's only fair we get an extra hour of sleep. In spring, it gets brighter and warmer, but we have to give up an hour of sleep for it.
—Lara Knuchel
If you've got a much better trick for remembering the time change, feel free to share it in the comments!
More on the topic:
- Forward or back? The time-change bullshit bingo
- We're turning the clocks again—11 things you need to know about the time change
- The best mnemonics for… well, everything else
