Goodbye to long days: the endsummer timecomes thesolar time 2024. Hands forward or back? And when to move them? Here's everything you need to know.
When does solar time return in 2024
In 2024, the time change will take place at night between Saturday October 26 and Sunday October 27. At 3 a.m., the hands will be moved back one hour. We will thus move from summer time, also called summer time, to solar time, or winter time.
As long as solar time remains in effect
Standard time returns every year in the fall. More precisely the last Sunday in October. And it remains in effect until the end of March: between March 29 and 30, 2025 we will return to daylight saving time. The hands will be advanced by one hour.
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What changes with solar time
On the night of the passage, with the hands having to be moved back one hour (from three o'clock on Sunday evening to two o'clock), solar time offers us an extra hour of sleep. And 60 minutes of extra light in the morning. The downside is that you will have an hour less light in the evening on subsequent days because sunset, like sunrise, will be an hour earlier.
Because time is changing
The time change is a consequence ofinvention of summer time: an international convention adopted to make the most of daylight hours during summer and reduce energy consumption.
In Italy, daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I to save the use of artificial light. Then it returned during World War II, but in a stable form it was adopted only in 1966.
At the European level, since 1996, all states have coordinated the time change and moved the hands forward one hour in March and back one hour in October.
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Change the time and save energy
The advantages of summer time are above all economic and environmental. Moving the hands forward one hour delays the use of electric lighting. This leads to lower bills, but also benefits for the environment, because reducing electricity consumption also means avoiding CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
From 2004 to 2023, according to analysis by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity transmission network, Italy's reduced electricity consumption due to daylight saving time was around 11.7 billion of kWh in total and resulted in savings of around 2.2 billion euros for citizens. .
It is for this reason that many are in favor of abolishing solar time and maintaining daylight saving time permanently. But there are also studies that support the opposite, that is, that the energy benefits from a time change today would be minimal and insignificant.
In addition, more and more attention is being paid to the effects of the double time change on sleep and health.
All these questions are at the center of a long debate in Europe. In fact, there has been discussion for years about the usefulness of the transition from one era to another and its abolition in the European Union. To this day, the question remains open.
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Changing the time: the effects on sleep and health
One of the reasons why there has been talk for some time about the abolition of the time change is its impact on people's well-being and habits, also supported by scientific studies.
Indeed, if it is true that light increases levels of serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter commonly known as the “good mood hormone”, it is also true that the change of time, in particular the arrival of midnight summer, has the effect of little leg-jet which can cause sleep problems.
Conversely, less exposure to the sun can be a source of stress. The fact that it gets dark earlier and the day is shorter can negatively affect our mood and make us a little depressed.
Bad mood, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, loss of concentration are the problems that can arise, only temporarily, with the movement of the hands.
The reason why the time change affects our psycho-physical state is that we have a biological clock, linked to circadian rhythms, which follows the natural alternation of light and darkness and is affected by the sudden variation that occurs with the passage of summer time. to standard time and vice versa, even if it's only one hour.
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Most doctors therefore agree: eliminating the time change would be good for your health.
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How to get used to the time change
The inconvenience caused by the time change mainly concerns the quality of sleep, so the experts' advice for dealing with it is similar to the “rules” of a good night's sleep.
Avoid staying up too late, don't take naps, eat light meals, don't use electronic devices before sleeping, do relaxing activities, don't exercise. And try to always set the alarm for the same time.
