It was extended by a week in 2000 so the state fell into line with NSW for the Olympic Games. Common start and end dates for daylight saving across Victoria, NSW and Tasmania were formalised a few years later so businesses didn't have to negotiate different time zones. Thanks to this extra week of dark mornings, Victorians have to endure sunrises that are as late as they are at midwinter. Dawn in Melbourne on June 22 – this year's winter solstice – will be at 7.36. This Saturday, the last day of daylight saving, the sun will poke its head above the horizon at 7.38. Sun rise over Melbourne has been getting later and later. Credit:Jason South The state’s south-west is living through an even later start to the day, with people in Portland not seeing the sun until 7.49am on Wednesday. On Saturday the sun won’t rise there until 7.52am.

"As daylight saving extends the better part of a week into April, Portland is getting some very late sunrises," says Michael Brown, Associate Professor at the Monash School of Physics and Astronomy. "Whether we choose to have dark mornings and light evenings as the days get shorter is a human preference. We could remove daylight saving, or even have anti-daylight saving if we preferred bright sunny mornings and dark early evenings." While it might seem like a good idea to hit the snooze button on the darker mornings this week, Associate Professor Amy Jordan from the Melbourne University School of Psychological Sciences says it is best to stick to a regular routine to avoid any changes to your body clock. The city skyline on Wednesday morning Credit:Eddie Jim “If we get up and do regular exercise that can be beneficial, turn on the lights to make it brighter. Even things like when you eat meals contribute to setting that clock. So when you get up, keep having your breakfast at the same time,” she says.

Come Sunday, Professor Jordan says winding the clocks back and getting an extra hour of sleep can actually lead to some people becoming sleep deprived. “You think it’s great, you get an extra hour of sleep but it doesn't actually work out quite like that. Some people, especially if they’re not sleep deprived won't actually sleep that extra hour but the next night they go to bed an hour later than usual. So when clocks change for daylight saving, in both directions people do become sleep deprived,” she says. Sleep deprivation and throwing your body clock out may only be temporary but there is evidence to suggest more detrimental effects. Researchers have noticed an increase in heart attacks and traffic accidents when the clocks spring forward again, which have been attributed to disturbing the internal body clock. Although there is no official Australian data, Swedish researchers found that the risk of heart attack was 6.7 percent greater in the days after clocks shift forward.

Studies in the US gathered similar results with the risk of heart attack jumping a huge 24 per cent during the same period. The US study also found that the risk of heart attack decreased by 21 per cent when the clocks returned to standard time. It is not exactly clear what causes the increase in heart attacks, but researchers suggest it is a combination of stress and sudden changes in sleeping patterns. Another US study found the number of fatal traffic accidents significantly increases after shifting to and from daylight saving time. The study assessed 21 years of data relating to fatal car accidents during the weeks following each daylight saving time shift.

From the results, sleep deprivation and behavioural changes including embracing the extra hour by staying out later were found to be contributing factors. Daylight saving was introduced to save energy and encourage people to make better use of sunlight during the First World War. Modern research suggests otherwise. While there is no comprehensive research to support whether or not daylight saving time influences energy consumption in Australia, Ariel Liebman, the deputy director of the Monash Energy Materials and Systems Institute says studies from the US are pretty transferable. “It looks like there’s little impact one way or the other. Some of the research from the US says it decreases [energy] consumption by maybe half a per cent having or not having daylight saving,” says Dr Liebman. He says because the results show marginal changes in power consumption, changes to policy would only be worth considering if the changes were around 5 per cent.

“On one end it can save you money, save energy like on summer days with longer evenings. But on the other end, we might find we use more energy because of the dark mornings during autumn,” he says.