Not again, but again: when we move the hands of the clock

In 2023, Greece will again change time from summer to winter time after the European Parliament’s decision to abolish it was not implemented.

In about a month, the time will change from summer to winter. IN last Sunday in October, that is 29/10 2023we will move the hands of our clocks one hour back: from 04:00 am to 03:00 am.

Let us recall that initially European countries introduced “summer and winter time” rules back in the last century in order to save energy, especially during the war and then – the oil crisis of the 1970s.

A little history

If you dig deep into history, you can find out that people started talking about changing the time back in 1784. The idea was initiated by Benjamin Franklin. It lies in the fact that in the summer, by shifting the time of human activity back an hour, we get additional light, and therefore save electricity in the evening, but do not lose anything in the morning. Later, another proponent of daylight saving time appeared – William Willett. A man was walking one summer morning and noticed that the shutters of many houses were closed. In his opinion, it was a waste of daylight. He began a campaign in the British Parliament for the adoption of a law to change the time: his idea was that by moving the clocks forward 80 minutes in the spring and summer (4 times 20 minutes), and back in the fall, people should have more time during the day in the evening Sveta. This idea was not realized.

In 1908, King Edward VII of Great Britain announced the transition to summer time at the royal estate of Sandringham, and soon at the estates of Windsor and Balmoral.

During the First World War, clocks were switched to “summer” time for the first time in Germany. On April 30, 1916, the hands were moved forward an hour, and on October 1, they were moved back an hour. Soon Great Britain also made the transition, and on March 9, 1918, the US Congress introduced division into time zones and the use of summer time during the war in order to save fuel, which is used to generate electric current. After a pause, in 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, the first introducing daylight saving time during peacetime.

Since 2001, daylight saving time has been EU governed by Directive 2000/84/EC, which requires all member states to switch to summer time on the last Sunday in March and return to standard time (winter time) on the last Sunday in October. In March 2019, the European Parliament voted to end the time change in spring and autumn from 2021. “The postponement must be abolished,” then-commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in 2018 after an online survey carried out in EU countries.

84% of those who took part agreed with stopping the practice. The “impact” of time changes on the body clock, such as difficulty in immediately adapting, also played a major role in this public opinion decision. However, today this solution was not implemented on the Old Continent because there was no universal agreement.

It is also important that the transition to “summer” and “winter” time affects human health. Thus, Dr. Martin Young from the University of Alabama at Birmingham warns that moving the clock forward an hour in the spring is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction by 20-24%. In addition, some people suffer from sleep deprivation, and losing 60 minutes of sleep due to daylight saving time can make it worse. Therefore, it is better to prepare for the transition in advance. For example, if a person usually wakes up at 6 a.m., he should set the alarm clock for 6.40 on Saturday, 6.20 on Sunday, and 6 a.m. on Monday. This way, the body adapts to changes in time faster and more naturally, and the risk of feeling unwell and having health problems at the beginning of a new week will also be reduced.

There are currently three standard time zones in the EU: Western European Time (Ireland, Portugal), Central European Time (17 Member States) and Eastern European Time (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania).

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