April 26, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Daylight saving time: when you need to move the clock forward one hour

On the night of Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26, 2023, there will be a change in time from “winter” to “summer”.

To do this, we move the clock hands one hour ahead. That is, at 03:00 the clock should show 04:00. One hour “goes into oblivion”.

The change of time from summer to winter and back was first introduced in Europe in 1916 when Germany during World War I wanted to reduce the consumption of coal used in military factories. Germany’s example was then followed by neighboring countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

This practice was largely abandoned in Europe after the end of World War II.but when the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, the need to reduce electricity consumption and, consequently, the need to reduce energy consumption again came to the fore.

According to Euronews, several surveys and studies that have been conducted since then show that the effect from a reduction in energy consumption is negligible, and this is partly due to the breakthrough in technology. But as far as the negative impact of clock changes on health is a very real problem.

For example, judging by the data of numerous studies conducted by scientific institutes, in the first week after turning the clock hands, citizens there is a surge in cases of heart attacks or exacerbation of diseases. In addition, there were long-term health problems such as depression, low metabolism, weight gain and headaches. This is because our “social clock”, ie. the program by which society operates and our internal clocks, which are more or less in sync with the sundial, are “out of sync”.

Recall that there are three time zones in Europe. Ireland and Portugal follow Western European Time. Central European Time is followed by 17 Member States EU. And finally, Eastern European Time is followed by Greece and Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Romania and Latvia.

The question of ending the system of transition of countries to “summer and winter time”, considered by the European Commission (before the covid pandemic), remained … open.



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