On the night from Saturday to Sunday we return to summer time

On the night of Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26, we change the time from winter to summer, which means that we will sleep an hour less. On Sunday morning, the clocks will be moved from 2.00 to 3.00.

Throughout the European Union, summer time is changed on the last Sunday in March, and winter time is returned to on the last Sunday in October.

In Poland, time change is regulated by the regulation of the Prime Minister. Issued every five years, for the next 5 years, the Communication of the European Commission introduces a common date and time for the start and end of the summer time period in all Member States.

The discussion on the legitimacy of time change in the European Union has been going on for several years. A public consultation conducted by the European Commission among Europeans in 2018 showed that 84% of of respondents were in favor of abolishing time changes. They collected 4.6 million responses (the highest number ever). Poles also turned out to be in favor of resigning from changing the time twice a year. The CBOS survey conducted in March 2019 showed that more than three quarters of all respondents (78.3%) are against this solution used so far, while only 14.2% are in favor of maintaining it. The overwhelming majority of adult Poles, when switching to one time, preferred Central European summer time, also known as summer time. More than 74% of voters support this choice. respondents.

The European Commission – at the request of citizens, after the EP resolution, and based on a number of scientific studies – in September 2018 proposed to abandon seasonal time changes. Work on the project was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in 2021, the EC recommended the Member States to continue the current regulations on time changes until 2026.

There is no shortage of research on the impact of time change on our health, well-being, environment and economy. A study of electricity consumption in Indiana (USA) showed that after the introduction of daylight saving time, residents’ electricity bills increased. In turn, research conducted in California proved that in this state the change of time does not cause changes in the demand for electricity. The Japanese calculated that the use of daylight saving time could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000. tonnes and help save up to 930 million liters of fuel. In addition, it contributes to a 10% reduction in the number of street thefts.

Dr. Michał Skalski from the Sleep Disorders Treatment Clinic at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Medical University of Warsaw explained in an interview with PAP that the change of time most affects people who have trouble sleeping or have a disturbed circadian rhythm.

In turn, Dr. Bartłomiej J. Gabryś from the University of Economics in Katowice noted that it is known that a reduced amount of sleep translates into work efficiency, e.g. of drivers, costly downtime or forced delays where we are dealing with shift work, especially in transport and logistics. “The costs in terms of people’s well-being are not insignificant. Today we know that the next shift, where we nominally lose an hour, to put it mildly, is not the healthiest for us” – the scientist indicated in the information provided to PAP.

Summer time arrangements were introduced by European countries in the last century. The aim was to save energy, in particular during the war and during the oil crisis of the 1970s. From 1980, legislation was gradually adopted to abolish the divergent schedules of national time changes.

The introduction of daylight saving time, i.e. moving clocks forward one hour in the spring and summer, was supposedly first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century. This was to help better match the time of human activity to the hours with the most sunlight and bring savings. That is why daylight saving time is referred to in English as “daylight-saving time”. In Poland, time change was introduced in the interwar period, then in 1946-1949, 1957-1964, and since 1977 it has been used continuously. (PAP)

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