Would you give up extra hour?

What are you going to do with your extra hour? Phone a friend perhaps, or bake a cake? Maybe you will take the opportunity to start that novel you always said you would write or, more importantly, clean out the cupboard under the stairs, a job which has been lurking on your "to do" list since 1974.

Most of us will of course simply sleep away our extra hour when the clocks go back on Sunday - small children, barking dogs and firework-wielding yobs permitting.

There are numerous other activities we could be engaged in, from bungee jumping to buying books online, but it seems very little actually peaks our interest enough to tempt us out from under the duvet.

A recent survey by the National Sleep Council discovered that North and East Yorkshire people would rather snuffle and snore the night away than enjoy a date with James Bond star Pierce Brosnan or a knees-up with Posh and Becks.

In fact, the only thing that would encourage us to relinquish the warmth of our beds was cold, hard cash.

While 91 per cent of us passed on Pierce and 96 per cent gave the Beckhams the boot, a healthy (but not necessarily wealthy) 62 per cent of us said we would happily swap our kip for cash.

Supermodel Linda Evangelista once said she would not get out of bed for anything less than £10,000.

We Tykes are more easily bought, agreeing to shed our sheets for a more reasonable £1,000.

But what else apart from cash would tempt us to trade in our extra hour of kip?

Personal shopper Gail Little, half of North Yorkshire's answer to Trinny and Susannah, would get out of bed for one reason only - a day with Christine Hamilton.

"I would love to take her on a shopping trip and give her some style advice," she explained. "Her colour co-ordination is a bit lacking. She will keep putting pink with red and then adding a bit of orange for good luck

"She's a great person and a very attractive woman. I just think we could make her look even better."

Radio York afternoon presenter Ellie Fiorentini tackled the question head on and decided that only a date with 30 rough, tough men in shorts would tempt her from under the duvet.

"If I could have a ticket for the Rugby World Cup final in Australia I would be out of bed like a shot," she said. "I'm an Ireland fan, but I'm not kidding myself that they will be in the final.

"I think the English boys could do it though - they are an incredibly strong team. So, I suppose I would have to cheer for them. Then again, the Australian captain is rather nice..."

Staying in bed is not an option for York private eye David Farrar. Unfortunately, Sunday is just another working day for him.

"A big part of my job involves serving legal papers," he said, "which means I need people to be in when I call. Just ask yourself where about 90 per cent of the population are at 9am on a Sunday morning. Yep, in bed. If I leave it until lunchtime they will all be down the pub.

"The early bird catches the worm in my game, so I have to be up and about no matter what day it is. Not exactly Magnum is it?"

James Fenwick of York's Fenwick department store doesn't want much in return for giving up an hour's sleep, just a round of golf on a beautiful sunny day.

"It sounds a bit boring doesn't it?" He said. "But that would really be my ideal way of whiling away an extra hour. Anyway, I could do with the practice. I'm a truly hopeless golfer."

Simple pleasures were also on the mind of the Lord Mayor of York, Coun Charles Hall. As a man who spends most of his working life at official functions, he would simply like some time alone.

"I would gladly swap an hour in bed for an hour on my allotment picking the last of my raspberries and plum tomatoes," he said. "I find it is the only place I can really relax these days.

"My wife and I have a lot of late nights because of the number of functions we attend, so an extra hour in bed in the morning would be nice. But not as nice as an hour on my allotment without so much one phone call."

Coun Hall might have had his feet planted firmly on the ground, but Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, had her head way up in the clouds.

"The only thing that would get me out of bed on Sunday is a hot air balloon ride over the Minster," she said. "If I could float over the city just as the sun was rising, all the better."

Astrologer Jonathan Cainer also looked to the skies - though in his case beyond the clouds. "The only thing that gets me out of bed early is something to see in the morning sky," he said. "Something like the eclipse we had earlier this year, or any amazing, astounding astrology."

Those born under the sign of Scorpio, which begins today, would probably have other things on their mind than getting out of bed, he added - particularly as Venus, the planet of love, is now under the sign of Scorpio.

"There is only one thing Scorpios would ever be interested in doing at that hour. They are renowned for their fondness for bed - and not necessarily for sleeping!" said Jonathan.

How British Summer Time began

British Summertime comes to an end this weekend - but when did it begin?

In 1907, a Mr Willett suggested in his pamphlet, The Waste Of Daylight, that advancing the clocks by 20 minutes every Sunday in April and turning them back by 20 minutes over four Sundays from late September would lead to a saving in artificial light costs of £2.5 million - the equivalent to about £149.4 million today

His idea was picked up and refined by Parliament in 1916, when MPs decided by a large majority to introduce British Summertime to reduce the need for coal, oil and other "precious"materials during the First World War.

In 1941, Double Summertime was introduced, meaning the time was two hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time from April until July. But this sparked numerous complaints, most notably from practising Jews who said it interfered with Hebrew festivals, and was scrapped.

In 1967, the adoption of a central European time on an experimental basis was raised by William Ross, the Secretary of State for Scotland. In the end it was decided not to amend British Summertime, despite Scottish claims it did not get light north of the border until 9am forcing schoolchildren and workers to leave home in the dark.

This timeless debate still ticks on.

Updated: 12:09 Friday, October 24, 2003