BRACE yourselves; we're all set to lose an hour of sleep tonight. But the good news is British Summer Time officially starts tomorrow.

The clocks will move forward by one hour at 1am tomorrow morning, which coincides with Mother's Day.

Most mobile phones and radio-controlled clocks make the change automatically, so you'll just need to remember to wind on other clocks and watches.

The clocks always go forward an hour on the last weekend in March in spring and go back on the final weekend of October in autumn.

To avoid confusion, remember the phrase 'spring forward, fall back'.

The clocks will go back by one hour on Sunday, October 27, when we revert to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is used as the standard time.

The changing of clocks was first introduced during the First World War by Germany and Austria to save on coal usage.

George Vincent Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist in 1895, and British businessman William Willett have also been credited with the idea as a way of getting up earlier and so having more daylight hours after work.

The European parliament has voted to scrap Daylight Saving Time in the EU by 2021. The change would apply to the UK if it stays in the EU.

Under the proposals, each member state would decide whether to continue with twice-a-year clock changes or stick permanently to summer or winter time.