This weekend’s entry into the summer season was full of controversy

Summer time

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From Sunday the days will be longer and the evenings will be longer. Twice a year, when the time changes, controversy resurfaces between proponents and opponents of maintaining summer and winter time. There are those who defend the merits or logic of this change based on usable daylight hours. Others question its usefulness and believe that eliminating summer and winter time altogether is healthier.

No agreement

However, no agreement has been reached till date. There were discussions that 2021 would be the last year of the clock change. But with the pandemic and Brexit, the attention of various governments was thought to be elsewhere. So it was decided to come back at another time. So, every time you change, the time may be last.

Pros and cons

This year, the Sleep Research Society (SRS) released a report on maintaining the same hours throughout the year. This was quickly met with a counter-reaction from scientists at the University of Santiago de Compostela and Seville. They publicly question the statement with arguments defending maintaining the time change.

Daylight Saving Time was introduced in the United States on March 12. It is the first country in the world. This is a good reason why the Sleep Research Society published an article in its official journal, Sleep. In this they concluded, based on a thorough bibliographic study, that the United States should abandon the time change and remain permanently on daylight saving time. They base this on numerous studies of the effects of time-shifting on health and the economy.

Spanish physicists José María Martín Olalla of the University of Seville and Jorge Mira of the University of Santiago de Compostela immediately questioned the conclusion. They want to sustain change. According to them, moving the clock forward or backward, depending on the time of year, allows us to optimize the use of sunlight, and in this way allows us to use the morning hours and get more hours of free time during the day.

Origin of Daylight Saving Time

The story goes that Daylight Saving Time (DST) was created to help farmers. But is that right? A farmer’s day is determined by the sun, not by the clock. Their cattle do not understand the regular changes caused by the clock change.

Another possible reason for the time shift is to save energy. However, the article by electricity provider Endesa says there are no credible studies showing that this leads to significant savings.

Discussion

In 2018, the European Commission a Online survey under control. More than 4.5 million people responded from all 28 member states. 84% of respondents said they did not want to continue with the clock changes. However, the majority of respondents (by participation rate/population) came from Germany at 3.79%, followed by Austria at 2.94% and Luxembourg at 3rd place at 1.78%. All other countries were less than 1%. On the other hand, Italy, Romania and the UK scored less than 0.05%. Spain got 0.19% of the vote.

What is the right time?

It seems like a simple solution to stop clocks from moving. However, there are other things to consider. Because what time should be the right time? Some countries voted to keep summer time permanently, while others preferred a winter time schedule.

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