This year again, who says autumn weather, says change of time and transition to winter time. This year, it will take place on the last Sunday of October on the night of Saturday October 29 to Sunday October 30, 2022. Clearly, at 3 a.m., it will be 2 a.m. and we will therefore gain an hour of sleep as a result.
Also at European level, when the European Parliament surveyed European citizens, 80% of the 4.6 million people who responded to the online questionnaire voted to put an end to the time change. But if MEPs have already voted for the end of the seasonal time change, because of the health crisis due to the coronavirus, MEPs had as a reminder chosen to postpone its application to 2021 with a question left open: what time to keep?
If the answer has already been decided for France, which wishes to keep summer time at 59% according to the citizen consultation organized by the National Assembly on the change of time in 2019, this is not the case for all European countries, particularly in southern Europe. Thus, this year again and for lack of European harmonization, the French will have to change time on the night of Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 October. According to MEP Karima Delli, in view of current international events, in particular the war in Ukraine, the end of the time change is no longer a priority in the European Parliament, and the end of the time change in Europe seems still difficult to imagine in 2023.
This is a moment awaited by many French people, the transition to summer time is fast approaching. In France, the transition to summer time will take place this year on the night of Saturday March 26 to Sunday March 27, 2022. So do we sleep more or less? At 2 a.m., it will instantly be 3 a.m. France thus goes from GMT 1, winter time, to GMT 2, summer time. This therefore means that we will lose an hour of sleep. Good news, however, the days will begin to lengthen since we will gain an hour of natural light, in addition to the natural lengthening of the days until the summer solstice, in June. As a reminder, the date of the transition to summer time always coincides with the last weekend of March.
If your computer, your telephone and other connected objects automatically switch to summer time without the slightest intervention on your part, it will still take care of resetting your clock, your clock radio, your oven microwave and why not your television.
If summer time is good news for many because it brings us closer to summer evenings with a little more natural light each day, some nevertheless denounce its harmful consequences on the economy or even health. Laetitia Moreau-Gabarain, president of the Citizens’ Association for Equitable and Sustainable Time and for the End of Double Daylight Saving Time (ACHED), told Planet why she is advocating for conservation of winter time . “The war in Ukraine is a big concern. The ensuing price spike is also a concern, especially for gas and diesel. For more independence from Putin’s fossil fuels and contained bills, we should consume less gas and oil. Reducing the time difference would help us do that,” she said. The president of ACHED also assures that winter time is the best for sleep. “Just Wednesday at the International Conference on Sleep, ‘Sleep better to learn better’, organized by the scientific council of National Education, following a question between winter time and summer time, a specialist of Inserm, Sabine Plancoulaine exclaimed that ‘winter time is the time most suited to the human biological rhythm'”, she recalls.
Last spring, the Citizens’ Association for a Fair and Sustainable Time (ACHED) took the floor in the columns of Planet to explain to us its fight against daylight saving time. In reality, the collective positions itself against what it calls “double summer time”. Where does this expression come from?
The hands of French clocks have undergone many manipulations throughout history. During the First World War, for example, our German-occupied territories switched from French time to German time overnight, and vice versa, several times. French time finally took over on November 17, 1918, before giving way again during the Second World War, in 1940.
While France is on its summer time, that is GMT 1, it is invaded by the ranks of Hitler who, once again, will impose their clock, that is to say one hour more. The country then found itself split in two, so much so that the Vichy government decided to align the entire territory with German time, or GMT 2, with a decree of February 16, 1941 which advanced the time by two hours. over the unoccupied part of France, and one hour in the occupied part.
At the time of the Liberation, a new decree provides for the abolition of German time, ie GMT 2. This requires a first switch to GMT 1, then a switch to GMT later. Without anyone really knowing why, a new decree cancels this switch to GMT, and France remains on summer time, which is winter time in Germany.
In 1976, when Valéry Giscard d’Estaing reinstated the time change following the first oil crisis, France again switched to German time, regardless of the season.
This change of time is not insignificant and can have real harmful effects on health. “Scientific literature shows that the time change can induce sleep disorders, vigilance, road accidents, depression, suicides and myocardial infarction”, explains INSERM. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Denver even showed in a study published in 2014 that the loss of one hour of sleep during the change of daylight saving time on Sunday increased the risk of having a heart attack by 25%. Monday.
The change of hours has more serious repercussions than simple disturbances of sleep. Indeed, during the first week of the transition to summer time, a 5% increase in heart attacks is recorded. Conversely, a 5% decrease in the number of heart attacks is observed in the week following the switch to winter time.
According to neurobiologist Joëlle Adrien, interviewed by LCI, it sometimes takes up to six days to recover. Some scientists even consider it to be even more harmful than the jet lag caused by changing time zones when traveling. Meals, waking times and bedtimes must, in fact, be staggered.
These various disorders are even more common in the most vulnerable people:
Indeed, in the case of the elderly, they are used to sleeping at fixed times and have a very short sleep cycle. Jet lag affects them more intensely than other younger age groups. Babies are also very affected. By alternating going to bed/waking up in the light of day, and going to bed/waking up at night, this disturbs their sleep. Finally, physically weak or ill people feel more sleep disturbances due to time changes.
While the reflection on the end of the time change was started by the European institutions in 2018 and that the time changes of 2021 were to be the last, nothing has yet been decided on the side of the European Union and the file seems frozen. “Given the deadlines, even if work were to resume this year, it would be extremely difficult to envisage an end to the time change for 2022 or 2023”, estimated Karima Delli, MEP behind the resolution with South West.
According to our survey which collected 39,208 participations from our readers, you are 62% to be in favor of the abolition of the time change, against 38% of our readers who remain attached to this habit. Among the 24,419 people wishing to put an end to the time change, 66% of you prefer to keep summer time, against 34% favoring keeping winter time. These results are in line with the citizen consultation organized by the National Assembly on the time change two years ago in 2019.
The French had until March 3, 2019 to make a choice and position themselves on the time change. 59% of people who took part in the consultation launched by the National Assembly said they wanted summer time to be maintained all year round. Indeed, more than 80% of those who participated want to end the time change and a majority (59%) want to opt for daylight saving time. Launched by the European Affairs Committee, this non-binding consultation “received 2,103,999 responses between February 4 and its closing on March 3 at midnight”.
Results that confirm the consultation launched by the European Commission in the summer of 2018. Out of approximately 4.6 million participants in member countries, 56% of voters, including France at 52%, were in favor of keeping daylight saving time. summer, compared to 36% for winter time.
Even if we set our clocks back an hour on the night of October 30 to 31, this does not mean that we gain in terms of sleep. “The change to daylight saving time is said to be accompanied by a one-hour gain in sleep, but ultimately there is little evidence for an increase in sleep duration that night- there”, confides to Medisite Dr. Sophie Dechaumont Palacin, neurologist and sleep specialist practicing at the Clinique des Cèdres in Toulouse. According to the specialist, “the transition to winter time tends to favor an early awakening of one hour during the following days, also resulting in the accumulation of a sleep debt throughout the following week” . According to her, “this sleep debt can induce excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue and an increased risk of accidents on public roads, which are perfectly demonstrated after the transition to summer time”.
As Medisite recommends, there are several tips to implement in order to limit the effects of the time change on your physical health:
The time change has something to upset his habits and his sleep, but what about taking his medication? “No, it is not necessary to change the time of taking medication”, assures Thomas Kassab, pharmacist, with Medisite. Whether it’s your birth control pill, heart medication, diabetes medication, or cholesterol medication, there’s no need to change the timing due to the time change. Indeed, the pharmacist considers that a single hour delay will have no impact on your treatment. So stick to your usual schedule and routine. Conversely, when traveling abroad, “adaptation is necessary when there are many hours difference. For example, when you go on vacation to the other side of the globe with several different time zones” , concludes the specialist.
Introduced in France following the oil shock of 1973-1974, the time change was to be synonymous with energy saving. The aim was to better match activity times and sunshine by reducing the need to use lighting in the evening. Since 1998, time change dates have been harmonized at European level to facilitate exchanges between States. This decision was recorded by the European directive of 2001 relating to the change of time and transposed into French law by order of April 3, 2001 of the Minister of the Economy. It took effect on January 1, 2002.
Thus, within all member countries, the transition to winter time takes place on the last Sunday of October and the transition to summer time, the last Sunday of March.
It is still necessary to know if we subtract or if we add an hour depending on whether it is the time change of one or the other season.
Another important point is the offset to the sun time. If in winter, we gain an hour of sleep, and are one hour behind solar time, the transition to summer time makes us artificially lose an hour of sleep and we are off two hours. GMT time.
This process is also increasingly criticized for the consequences on our health and for its inefficiency. In 2017, the Research Service of the European Parliament presented an analysis which specifies that if energy savings exist, their scope remains “marginal”.
Daylight saving time in March 2022 will likely be one of the last time changes. Indeed, several votes on the time change have already taken place in Europe and a process is underway to put an end to this measure, so decried. The measure was to come into force in 2021, at the earliest.
Following a proposal from the European Commission, the European Parliament voted to abolish the time change on March 26, 2019. If the decision still has to be validated by all the Member States of the EU, In France, the time could well be kept all year round. The measure will not come into effect until 2021 at the earliest.
No. The time change often depends on the importance of the variation in luminosity in the regions. This is the reason why the transition to summer time is carried out in the majority of countries in Europe and North America. A total of 76 countries around the world apply this seasonal schedule change. Canada, the United States or Brazil, however, practice it heterogeneously throughout the territory given the size of the country, notes the site of the Public Service.
Others, however, have abandoned this practice. The majority of countries in Africa and Asia do not use daylight saving time.
Europe is also one of the last continents to still ask questions about the repeal of the time change. In many other countries around the world, its removal is already effective. It has given way to summer time or winter time only. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
However, there are special cases. For example, in Cyprus, the island splits in two. The Greek South applies winter time, but the Turkish North remains on summer time, following Turkey’s decision not to change the time, details the Change-Time site.
In your opinion, which of the two is the most tiring for the body? Although sleep, which operates in 24-hour cycles, can be disturbed for several days after a seasonal time change, it is especially disturbed during the transition to summer time. It is the most tiring for the body.
Indeed, by amputating the sleep of one hour it can generate in some:
It is estimated that it would take the body a week to adjust to a time change, explains Eureka Health. To approach this upheaval serenely there are some tips:
“At the request of the European Parliament, the Commission carried out an online public consultation on seasonal time changes during the summer of 2018 which received 4.6 million responses from the 28 Member States (the participation rate the highest ever recorded for a public consultation organized by the Commission), “says the public service. 84% of Europeans are in favor of their abolition.
6 months later, between February 4 and March 3, 2019, the French were also consulted by the European Affairs Committee of the National Assembly to find out whether they were for or against maintaining the time change. Of the more than 2.1 million responses collected, 83.71% were in favor of ending this process and 59.17% of participants admitted to having a preference for summer time.
61% of the participants also answered that they had “a negative or very negative experience of the time change”, specifies the site of the French administration.
France has planned to abolish the time change by maintaining summer time all year round, although this choice remains to be confirmed.
Staying on daylight saving time all year round will have advantages and disadvantages.
Admittedly, with summer time, the French benefit from long sunny days/evenings, but children can be disturbed. Indeed, when the real (astronomical) time of sunset is until 8 p.m. and night does not fall before 9 p.m., during the longest days of the second half of June, it is not so no night before 11 p.m.
In winter, daylight saving time will be artificially postponed to 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (astronomical time). Consequences :
This is why European harmonization is planned.