It's time to get used to darkness falling earlier in the afternoons, with sunset just after 3.30pm in northern Finland.

Daylight saving time ends in Finland at 4am on Sunday, 27 October. While phones and some other electronic devices automatically make the switch, clocks and other gadgets may need to be moved back an hour in the evening – allowing an extra hour of sleep.

Whereas Helsinki's sunrise and sunset times on Saturday were 8.27am and 5.43pm, on Sunday they will be 7.29am and 4.38pm.

In the northernmost municipality of Utsjoki, Saturday's times were 9.11am and 4.39pm, Sunday's corresponding times will be 8.15am and 3.35pm.

This year's DST dates are the same in Europe, 31 March-27 October. However, in the US and Canada for instance, daylight saving does not end until next weekend, on 3 November. Other countries, including Russia and most of Asia, do not change their time at all.

Some EU states reluctant to quit DST

For several years, Finland has been urging the EU toabandon the daylight saving practice. Last spring, it appeared that the blocmight drop the system, possibly even during the current Finnish EU presidency term.

However since then it has become clear that many central and southern European countries remain committed to DST. Meanwhile Ireland does not want to risk being on a different time than its main trading partner, the UK.

There are also concerns about Europe being split into more than its current three time zones. Finland is now part of the Eastern European Time (EET) zone along with the three Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. Non-EU states in the EET include Ukraine, Moldova and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The autonomous Åland islands are the westernmost area using EET in Europe. It and parts of mainland southwestern Finland should in purely geographic terms observe Central European Time (CET) as they lie to the west of 22°30' E, as do parts of the major Estonian islands.

11:00 Corrected US DST date