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From Sunday the days will feel longer and the evenings will stay lit up longer. Twice a year, when the time changes, controversy again arises between proponents and opponents of maintaining summer and winter time. There are those who advocate its benefits or the logic of this change based on the usable hours of the day. Others question its usefulness and believe that it would be better to completely eliminate summer and winter.
No deal
However, no agreement has been reached yet. There have been discussions that 2021 will be the final year to change the clock. But with the pandemic and Brexit, it was thought that the focus of the various governments should be elsewhere. Therefore, it was decided to return to it at another time. Therefore, every time you change the time it can be the last.
Pros and Cons
This year, the Society for Sleep Research (SRS) published a statement advocating keeping the same time throughout the year. This was soon met with a counter-reaction from scientists from Santiago de Compostela and the University of Seville. They question the statement publicly with arguments in favor of preserving the time shift.
Daylight saving time was introduced in the United States on March 12. It was the first country in the world. This was a good reason for the Sleep Research Society to publish an article in its official journal, Sleep. In this they concluded, based on a thorough bibliographic study, that the United States should forgo the time shift and remain permanently in daylight saving time. And they rely on a large number of studies on the consequences of changing the time on health and the economy.
Spanish physicists José María Martín Olalla, from the University of Seville, and Jorge Mira, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, immediately questioned this conclusion. They want to keep changing. According to them, moving the clock forward or backward, depending on the time of year, allows us to optimize the use of sunlight and in this way make the most of the morning and have more leisure hours during the day.
The origin of daylight saving time
The story goes that Daylight Savings Time (DST) was created to help farmers. But is this true? The farmer’s day is determined by the sun, not the hour. Their cattle do not understand the changes in routine caused by the change of the clock.
Another possible reason for the time changes is energy savings. However, an article published by the electric company Endesa stated that there are no reliable studies showing that this leads to significant savings.
discussion
In 2018, the European Commission obtained a dossier online survey detained. More than 4.5 million people from all 28 member states responded. 84% of the participants said they did not want to keep changing the clock. However, the majority of participants (by participation rate/population) came from Germany with 3.79%, followed by Austria with 2.94% and Luxembourg in third place with 1.78%. All other countries were less than 1%. On the other hand, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom recorded less than 0.05%. Spain received 0.19% of the vote.
What is the correct time?
Seems like a simple solution to stop moving clocks. However, there are other things to consider. Because what time should be the right time? Some states also voted to maintain permanent daylight saving time, while others preferred a winter time schedule.
