When do the clocks change in Europe in 2023? Don’t forget to change your clock! Mark your calendar to avoid any surprises. Daylight saving time 2023 is soon coming to an end in Europe. Time to prepare for the Autumn 2023 time change! As autumn approaches, daylight grows shorter, and the transition from summer to winter time looms. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming time change.
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Autumn Time Change in Europe: when do clocks change in 2023?
The end of summer daylight saving time and the switch to wintertime happens annually on the last Sunday in October. Dayloght In 2023, residents of EU countries, including Germany and Italy, will set their clocks back in the early morning on Sunday, October 29 – from 3:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. This extra hour of sleep is a welcome change, although many scientists have called for an end to time changes due to their disruptive impact on our bodies. Your smartphones should make the switch automatically, but it won’t hurt to double-check in the morning.
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Will I gain or lose one more hour of sleep?
Thankfully, the end of daylight savings time means that you gain an hour of sleep. As the Royal Observatory of Greenwich suggests, an easy way to remember which way the clocks change is to think ‘spring forward‘ and ‘fall back‘. So yes, you’ll need to move your clock back!
Global Trends in Time Change
The changing of the clocks has been a topic of debate in many countries. Recently, the world is seeing a shift away from biannual time changes. Currently, less than half of the world’s countries still observe this practice. According to Statista.com, approximately 140 countries have already abolished the time change tradition.
What’s the Future of Clock Change in the EU?
While the European Parliament initially aimed to eliminate the biannual clock adjustments, an agreement was not reached among member states. Some countries prefer to stay permanently on Daylight saving time while some prefer winter time. Due to the pandemic, discussions on this matter were halted, and the European Commission recommended that member states maintain current regulations from 2022 to 2026 to prevent legislative confusion. As a result, time changes will continue in all European Union countries, as well as Switzerland.
The Origin of Time Change
Daylight saving time was first suggested by New Zealand entomologist George Hudson in 1895. His motivation for the proposal was to gain additional daylight hours to find and inspect insects.
The German Empire and Austria-Hungary were the first international countries to officially enact daylight saving time in 1916, as a way to save coal and fuel during the First World War. This idea quickly spread to other European countries, including Great Britain.
The concept behind the clock change aims to optimize sunlight in the northern hemisphere as the days grow longer in spring and shorter in fall. The idea is that by “springing forward” and “falling back,” people can gain an extra hour of sunlight at the end of their workday. However, the advantages of this adjustment are a subject of controversy, as according to research this shift can have a measurable impact on health.
Can daylight-saving time transitions be bad for our health?
Experiencing sleep deprivation due to the “spring forward” time adjustment may be more than just a minor inconvenience. Turning the clock ahead or back one hour during daylight saving time transitions may be tied to an increased risk of ischemic stroke, according to research by the University of Turku, Finland.
“Previous studies have shown that disruptions in a person’s circadian rhythm, also called an internal body clock, increase the risk of ischemic stroke, so we wanted to find out if daylight saving time was putting people at risk,” said study author Jori Ruuskanen, MD, PhD.
The study, conducted in 2016, discovered that in the two days following daylight saving time, the overall stroke rate increased by 8%. Cancer patients faced a 25% higher likelihood of experiencing a stroke during this period, while individuals over the age of 65 had a 20% greater risk of having a stroke.