What the October 2022 time change has to do with Benjamin Franklin

Soon it will be that time again, the winter time will start. On Sunday, October 30, 2022 the time change takes place. Two pieces of good news: we gain an hour and it gets light earlier in the morning, the bad news: it gets dark faster in the evening.

Winter time has always been controversial, in the EU there has even been discussion for several years whether the time change should be abolished. More information about the history behind the clock change, its pros and cons and when it will be abolished at the earliest can be found here:

Let’s start at the beginning. The idea of ​​summer was first documented in a 1784 essay by Benjamin Franklin. Night owl and late sleeper Franklin wrote the – rather ironically intended – letter to the editor “An Economical Project” for the “Journal de Paris”. In it, he satirically told readers how much candles could be saved if they burned an hour longer in the evening.

The title of Franklin’s essay exemplifies what has always been the primary driver of a change in time: economic considerations. The idea attracted a lot of attention at the time, but it was mainly researchers and scientists who promoted it. The time change did not initially appeal to the general public. It was decided at the time that it was too complicated.

It was not until the outbreak of the First World War that the change of time received a new impulse, because they wanted to save fuel for lighting, which was becoming scarce. Almost all parties involved in the war implemented daylight saving time. After the end of the war, the sometimes unpopular war measure was in some cases abolished, and the Second World War turned the clocks back in the summer.

In 1941 and 1942, Switzerland also briefly introduced the time change as a war measure. At the end of the seventies, as a result of the oil crisis in Germany and Austria, attempts were again made to permanently introduce daylight saving time. Swiss politicians wanted to join However, the population thwarted its plans with a referendum and plebiscite.

However, when neighboring countries finally introduced the six-monthly time change in 1980, the problems became apparent. Switzerland as a so-called time island in the middle of Europe, where the clocks were set differently half the year, made the organization of Central European train traffic considerably more difficult. On January 1, 1981, the time change also came into effect in Switzerland. There was no referendum and subsequent attempts to abolish it – for example by SVP father Christoph Blocher – also failed.

As early as the 1980s, the division into winter or normal time and summer time was received negatively. “In Bonn people almost never decide [damals Hauptstadt der BRD, Anm. d. Red.] before the time change we are in turmoil!”, the opponents reacted enthusiastically. The focus at the time was that the SBB would suffer serious economic consequences if Switzerland did not also switch to summer time.

To make the transition as smooth as possible, it was decided to move the time change to one weekend night. This time made the switch easier for SBB, a large part of the population sleeps at this hour and latecomers still have time to change their clocks on Sunday.

Daylight saving time ends on Sunday and winter time, also known as standard time, begins. This means, we set the clock back one hour. So from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. Most clocks change automatically. The good news: With the time change, we gain the hour we lost in March.

PS: Anyone who starts a discussion every fall and spring about whether we win or lose an hour can use the following mnemonic garden furniture serve as a reminder: in the spring this before set the house (and the clock accordingly) beforeposed), in the fall the furniture (and the clocks by an hour) will be back yieldposted.

In Switzerland, the arguments for the time change have always been of a practical nature: the emphasis was on adaptation to the European standard. Daylight saving time was introduced in Europe mainly with a view to the economy. The question of whether this effectively saves energy has been re-examined in the course of the debate on its abolition in the EU, but studies have so far been unable to unequivocally answer it.

It is argued that while daylight savings time means less artificial light is needed in the evenings, heating takes place earlier in autumn and spring. Some recent studies in Germany have concluded that the energy savings that can be achieved are marginal at best. In general, however, it is difficult to generalize findings. What applies to a small village in Norway does not necessarily apply to a city in southern Spain.

However, the research situation is also unclear because the generation of light and energy is constantly changing. There is now a new argument for the summer: the possibility for owners of photovoltaic systems to use the electricity they produce themselves increases. This is because power generation and user profile are better aligned in the evenings.

Some researchers would welcome the abolition of daylight saving time for health reasons. The time changes – especially in the spring – cause mini jet lag in some people and can cause sleep problems. But the time change can also have a negative effect on a biological level. Blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, but also the release of hormones, for example, follow an internal biological clock. If the daily rhythm changes, this can lead to adjustment difficulties and thus to complaints.

In principle, the research situation on the health consequences is also rather poor and contradictory. On the one hand, it seems confirmed that less time in the spring has a greater impact than the change from summer to winter time in the fall. These are due to sleep deprivation, the traces of which apparently disappear after a week in most people. On the other hand, it can be shown that the different chronotypes – ie the categories into which people can be classified according to their favorite sleep-wake phases – react differently. One study found that late chronotypes – the so-called owls – only briefly adjust their sleep times and not at all adjust their activity patterns to the changed time and new rhythm.

The German ruling party CDU already decided in 2014 to campaign for the abolition of the switchover. The EU only came on the scene in 2018. The EU Parliament has instructed the EU Commission to reassess the time change in general. Then they started an investigation. An initial evaluation showed: that 84 percent of the participants were in favor of abolition.

As a result, the EU planned to accommodate its citizens and abolish the daylight saving time format after 2021. Both the European Commission and the Parliament approved this roadmap. But then came the corona pandemic.

Since then, the clocks have not turned much further at this point. The EU still faces a major problem with the question of the new normal time, ie whether daylight saving time should apply after the abolition. So far, EU countries have failed to reach an agreement, which is not surprising given the EU’s geographic size. For example, if one agreed to daylight saving time, it would be dark on the west side until just before 10 a.m. in winter. If winter time were permanent, for example in Poland, it would already be light at 3 a.m. in summer.

Nevertheless, the EU is striving for a uniform implementation – just imagine the chaos otherwise! From a health perspective, it seems clearer: sleep researchers and scientists fear there could be health consequences for the population if one decides to use daylight saving time. The winter time corresponds more with the biological rhythm of people.

Regardless of how the EU decides – Switzerland is likely (or not) to follow. As with the adjustment to Europe when it was introduced, today it would make no sense to stick to the time change twice a year.

Only about a third of all states have committed to daylight saving time. This includes most European and North American countries. The time change also exists in Israel, Syria, Iran, Peru, Paraguay, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Mexico, and parts of Australia. The fact that not all countries have daylight saving time may mean that the time in the same time zone is not the same all year round. This map shows an overview: