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Switching to daylight saving time causes a lot of controversy. Many people believe that instead of benefits, it brings only trouble, related to e.g. with financial matters. However, the negative effects of changing time do not end there. Changing watches also affects our health. Do you know where the daylight saving time change comes from and what its effects are? You will find the answer below.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the local time adopted by a specific country at a specific time of the year. The immediate goal behind the daylight saving time change is to make better use of daylight. Another, resulting from the previously mentioned – energy saving. What is the situation today?
When is the daylight saving time changed? We set the watches on the last weekend of March, to be more precise on the night of Saturday 26 March to Sunday 27 March. We move the time forward one hour from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
Where did the daylight saving time change come from?
The setting of clocks forward one hour, from 2.00 am to 3.00 am, is due to a directive of the European Union issued in January 2001. Before the directive was introduced, however, the idea of changing the time was appearing in people’s minds.
The first known person to step in was Benjamin Franklin. While living in France, in the pages of the Journal de Paris in 1784, the man published an essay in which he suggested quite serious changes in the functioning of the inhabitants of Paris. According to his “joking” recommendations, under the threat of imposing taxes and financial penalties, they were obliged to get up in the morning to make the best use of the daylight. While Benjamin Franklin’s suggestions have yet to initiate change in the world, the idea of changing the time has begun to sprout in other people’s minds.
- Find out more: Changing the time is not indifferent to our health. How does it affect them?
William Willett is considered to be the initiator of the daylight saving time change, who held his own convictions until his death. The man believed in this idea so strongly that in 1907 his original pamphlet, “The Waste of Daylight”, published with Willett’s own funds, saw the light of day. The man argued that changing watches in the summer by 80 minutes could have many positive effects, both for the health and the wallet of citizens. The last effect was motivated by huge savings on energy, which he estimated at nearly 2,5 million pounds. However, the promoter of the summer time concept did not live to see the postulated changes.
Summer time was ordered by the German Reich on April 30, 1916, when in the territories of Poland and the Balkans, occupied by the Germans, the time was moved forward an hour. The next country was Great Britain, and after it changes were also introduced by the USA. It happened on March 19, 1918, at the United States Congress, that daylight savings time was ordered for the duration of the war. The goal, as in all cases, was to look for savings.
Further part below the video.
When is the daylight saving time changed?
Nowadays, the change to daylight saving time is in force in almost 70 countries. In Poland, we switch from winter to summer time exactly from 2.00 am to 3.00 am on the last Sunday of March. This means that in 2022, the time on the watch will change from March 26 to March 27.
For several years, speculation has been circulating as to when this obligation will be abolished, as almost 2019 percent expressed such a desire in 80. Poles surveyed. People who took part in the survey almost unanimously replied that they would prefer to stay with summer time permanently. Unfortunately, according to forecasts, nothing indicates this, and the obligation to change the time will apply to us at least until 2026.
In the following years, we will change the time from winter to summer in sequence:
- March 26, 2023 r.;
- March 31, 2024 r.;
- March 30, 2025 r.;
- March 29, 2026
Changing to daylight saving time can have a negative effect on your health
The first, but least glaring, negative effect of daylight savings time is that we sleep an hour less.
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The next arguments against the rearrangement of watches are more convincing, however. Many opponents of this obligation believe that its intended purpose – namely saving on electricity – has in fact not been substantially met. Instead of saving money, employers struggle with higher costs.
The topic of health is more blatant. It turns out that switching to daylight saving time can affect cognitive, metabolic and behavioral disorders. This fact was confirmed in an experiment conducted by scientists studying circadian rhythms. The results showed that changing time negatively affects the human biological clockwhich may contribute to the development of depression, obesity, a greater likelihood of a heart attack, and even cancer.
Medical professor at the University of Chicago, Eve Van Cauter, said in Healthline.com that changing watches can, among other things, increase your risk of insomnia, stroke and high blood pressure in the days following a time switch.
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