Daylight saving time resumed on March 26, 2023, with the time shift. On Sunday night, the clocks were advanced by one hour. It is lighter later in the evenings and darker earlier in the morning.
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| Time Change 2023 |
Summer has returned, albeit temporarily. Last weekend, all EU nations and the majority of bordering European countries, including Germany, shifted to Central European Summer Time (CEST). The clocks were advanced to 3 a.m. at 2 a.m., making Sunday night 60 minutes shorter than normal.
EU cannot agree on a time zone
The meaning and nonsense of the time shift have been debated since its introduction in 1980. It was previously planned for abolition by the European Union in 2018. According to an online poll, the majority of Europeans, particularly Germans, had previously yearned for the end of summer time. The European Parliament approved it in 2019, however the deadline was pushed back to 2021. The plans have been put on hold since then. The issue is that the EU wishes to avoid switching time zones from nation to country. As a result, the member states must decide whether summer time or the old standard time, Central European Time, will be used indefinitely in the future. Yet, no consensus is in sight, despite the fact that many scientists advocate for standard time.
Time change and health
Many people experience sleep issues as a result of the time shift. Every second participant said there were detrimental consequences on their sleep habits and well-being in a poll commissioned by the KKH health insurance business in 2021. Women had far more problems than males. Sleep studies have shown that elderly persons and youngsters have greater difficulty adapting than younger people. They recommend spreading out your sleeping time across multiple days, i.e. getting up ten minutes earlier each day before the time change.
Doctors are against permanent summer time
Sleep medicine professionals, in particular, advocate for a consistent time throughout the year. One argument against eternal summer time, according to them, is that it would be too bright in the afternoons and too dark in the mornings in winter. The sun would rise later as you moved farther north in Germany. As a result, people would become fatigued later in the day while still having to wake up early in the morning. Also, if it was dark for an extended period of time, they would have a more difficult time waking up. Sleep deprivation would be the effect. If this continues, health may deteriorate considerably.
The transition is always difficult for Deutsche Bahn. Even though there are only a few passenger trains at night, the timetable is thrown off by the missing hour. Deutsche Bahn makes every effort to abbreviate the planned pauses of night trains in order for them to arrive on time in the morning. If this is not possible, they will arrive at their destination late. Deutsche Bahn dispatches freight trains as early as possible on the night of the time change.
On October 29th, we will return to regular time
The time change is always on the final Sunday of March and October. Daylight saving time will end on October 29, 2023. The Physical-Technical Federal Institute in Braunschweig is in charge of all radio-controlled clocks. Since 1980, clocks in the spring have been shifted from Central European time to summer time. It was originally designed to conserve energy by keeping the lights on longer in the evenings. Nevertheless, according to the Federal Environment Agency, this expectation was not met: while individuals turn on their lights less frequently in the evening, they heat up more in the mornings in spring and fall. The total is balanced.
The earliest attempts to turn the clock were attempted more than a century ago: during World War I, the German Reich was the first country in the world to implement daylight saving time in 1916. As the war ended in 1918, the project came to a stop.