Time Changing Fact You May Not Know About

On the night between Saturday October 28 and Sunday the 29th of the same month, an event occurred known as autumn time change. With whom you go, supposedly, in winter. So at 3 it will be 2 again and we will have another hour of sleep. This is the exact opposite of what happens in the spring, when 2 hours becomes 3 hours and we sleep an hour less, with all the ensuing consequences the next day.

This may make us think that the autumn time change is better than the spring time change. And you might say yes, but the truth is that in making this statement we are starting from the wrong idea. Basically, because if we are strict, Autumn is not a change of time.

In the spring, time is changed by moving the clocks forward, but in the fall this change is reversed. That is, this Saturday we will enter what is called standard time (GMT+1)which adapts best to solar time, as explained Hypertext Marie Angeles Bonmati, biologist and researcher at the Chronobiology Laboratory of the University of Murcia. Then, in the spring, we will leave this schedule and move on to GMT+2 and we will continue to do so until we cancel it again in the new fall.

Several centuries of changing times

The history of time change is much longer than we think. One of the first to propose this was Benjamin Franklin. In 1784 he lived in Paris, where he served as the US ambassador to France.

Since he was a very observant person, he realized that in summer the Sun rises much earlier than in winter. Therefore, in order to save on lamp oilat this time the French got up very early to catch take advantage of daylight. And they also went to bed earlier. He thought that if the clocks were moved forward an hour in the spring, the summer effects could be avoided. He proposed this to whoever should take action on the matter by writing a petition to a French newspaper. but no one took him seriously.

Like him, many other people in different countries continued to try, but with the same results. The decision to conduct the test was made only at the beginning of the 20th century, during World War I. At first, the time change was somewhat chaotic, since each country had its own rules. The first to change the clocks in Europe was Germany. Later, countries from around the globe were added, but sometimes only with part of their territory. In Spain, for example, during Civil WarThe Rebel and Republican sides had different schedules.

In the end, in 1980s, the chaos was brought together a bit by introducing two supposed time changes: one in the spring and one in the fall. However, as we have already seen, the second change now essentially consists of canceling the first and returning to the time that the scientific community considers most appropriate.

Is there any benefit to this?

No one took Benjamin Franklin seriously, but those who defend the continuation of time changing from year to year are based on the same premise that he based it on in the 18th century: to save energy.

Supposedly this saves the population from the need to resort to artificial lighting for many hours. But the truth is that the benefits, if any, are minimal. In Spain, for example, the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE) has calculated that, at best, the energy savings will be 6 euros per year on your electricity bill. This might be sufficient if there were no negative health consequences. The problem is that they exist and, according to experts, it’s not worth encountering them for just 6 euros.

Health consequences of time changes

The most harmful effect on health is caused by the true change of time, the one that occurs in the spring. “The March time change leads to a series acute effectsin the short term,” says Bonmati. “Sleep time is decreasing, with all the ensuing consequences, it is becoming longer drowsiness during the day, greater tendency to mood swings and worst mood” Besides, “ digestive disorders “They are also common because our metabolism does not understand changes over time.” Even “emergency department visits appear to be increasing, as are myocardial infarction and strokes.”

All this happens in the short term. It is difficult to quantify whether there are long-term effects, since “the effects of changing time can be confused with the effects caused by natural seasonal changes in photoperiod“

In addition, it is influenced by various factors, from each person’s sleep patterns to their geographic location. However, “indirectly, we can intuit that there may be cumulative negative time-related effects due to lack of sleep and circadian disturbances“

Circadian rhythms are those that mark the physiological events that follow 24 hour periods. For example, sleep. Every day we sleep for a few hours and stay awake for the rest until 24 hours have passed. We eat several times, more or less at the same time, and usually follow cycles that repeat over and over again. This, among other triggers, is controlled by day length. When this hits our eyes, the brain interprets that it is daytime and therefore we should be awake. Instead, when it gets dark, a hormone called melatoninwhich, among other functions, is responsible for creating the drowsiness we need to sleep.

As Marie Angeles Bonmati reminds us, daylight hours vary throughout the year. “It must be made clear that days shorten and lengthen not due to changes in time, but rather due to seasonal changes that occur as a result movement of the earth around the sun“, explains the chronobiologist. “When time changes, the only thing we do is delay or advance the clocks that control our schedule, which implies, especially with the change of March, an increase in the discrepancy between our internal clocks, solar time and social time.”

That is why this artificial change in time is so unpleasant for us. Because we come into conflict with the cycles that normally control our brains with the precision of a Swiss watch.

Should it be a one-time change?

In recent years, experts around the world have insisted that changing the time should be abandoned. However, there is some disagreement as to what time should be chosen.

For example, in USAThe Senate approved a decision in 2022 to abandon the time change and maintain a fixed schedule. However, it was decided to maintain the so-called summer time, which caused a strong reaction among scientists.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a statement in which she noted her agreement with the refusal to change the time, but disagreement with the choice of schedule. They pointed out that it is best for health to maintain what is called winter time, since this is what coincides with solar time and is therefore what our circadian rhythms are naturally governed by.

Bonmati agrees with this, remembering that “to lose an hour is to move away from what marks our life.” internal clock“

Despite all this, this Saturday we don’t actually have a time change, but rather a return to normalcy. At least what our brain perceives as normal. And, as we have seen with many other phenomena, we must take what our brain dictates much more seriously.