The clocks go back on Sunday, but it should be the last time. here's why

Getty Images / SergeiKorolko

Step back, spring forward. Or is it spring back, falling forward? Does this mean that we are more or less in bed? Will I be more or less tired? Everything could be about to change.

The clocks go back on Sunday, October 28, ending the British summer and paving the way for long nights, as well as an extra hour of sleep. However, if EU plans are accepted, the bogus confusion of the summer time will soon be a thing of the past.

In September, the European Commission issued a proposal to end seasonal shift changes on the continent. If the bill is passed, it means that the clock setting will be stopped as early as 2019. On the last Sunday of March, clocks will advance. Countries will have the opportunity to postpone them in October. After that, there will be no more changes.

This initiative enjoys broad support across Europe. A public consultation revealed that 84% of the citizens of the 28 Member States were in favor of the end of the bi-annual change of time. The consultation recorded the highest number of responses ever received during a public consultation of the European Commission: 4.6 million people.

"Millions have responded and [they] I think that in the future, summer time should be all year long, and that's what will happen, "said committee chairman Jean-Claude Juncker. The proposals indicate that EU member states will have the freedom to decide on their own standard time. They could therefore opt for a summer or winter period. All of this is based on a fairly ambitious support schedule from national governments and MEPs, whose adoption is due by March 2019 at the latest.

Modern summer changes were introduced in Europe in the 20th century, first by Germany and France during the First World War to conserve energy by burning less coal. Britain, along with other countries, followed suit and in the decades that followed, many countries moved away from seasonal changes. For example, the United Kingdom and Ireland maintained the British summer time all year 1968, and then returned in 1972. The EU adopted legislation in 1996 aiming to unify practice across the continent: biannual clock changes, one on the last Sunday of March and one on the last Sunday of October.

So, why is it planned to change things? Those who want to remove the economy from the light of day say that the energy saving benefits of maximizing sunshine hours, a defining factor of the twentieth century, are no longer as important. "New studies confirm that energy savings are now marginal," said Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic when presenting the EU report. "We are clearly moving towards smart cities, smart buildings and smart solutions, which will generate far more savings than clock changes."

There are also reasons around health and well-being. "It's a fantastic idea," says Joseph Gannon, clinical manager at Sleep Disorders Clinic in London. "Anecdotally, when clocks change, I have an influx of patients who report some sort of insomnia."

"What we must remember here is that when it comes to sleeping, we are all built as low as cavemen." They had no notion of time other than when the sun was in the sky. We get used to some sleep cycles very well and if we change the time of an hour, the body will have trouble calculating.

The circadian rhythms of the body are at the heart of this problem. These are the 24-hour activity patterns that we go through every day, influenced by light and controlled by a master clock in the brain, housed in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. "It sends signals to the whole body, to the little clocks that tell you when to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom," says Kyle Osbrink, curator of The sun: live with our star at the science museum.

"When you change the clocks, you get a mini-version of jetlag. If you have already experienced the time difference, you will know that your internal clock is not synchronized to an external time. Basically, when you lose an hour in the summer, it is difficult for the body to adapt. 2007 study suggests we never fully adjust »

The jerky circadian rhythms create stress for the body, which can be reflected in all kinds of areas. A 2012 study by the University of Alabama in Birmingham, for example, found a 10% increase in the number of heart attacks in the days following the switchover to daylight saving time. March. Other studies suggest that daytime savings can lead to an increased risk of stroke as well as workplace injuries.

Then there is the economic argument for abolishing daylight saving time. The EU is currently spread over three time zones. The United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal use GMT, 17 Central European states use GMT + 1 and eight Eastern states use GMT + 2. Depending on whether countries decide to adopt summer or winter winter, the changes could lead the UK and Ireland to share the same time zone as most of continental Europe. This could be an improvement for trade and communications.

Of course, neighboring countries also have the opportunity to decide on different normal times. "We are asking states to do this in a coordinated way," said Enrico Brivio, spokesperson for the European Commission. "In principle, we can live with two different time zones. What we do not accept is that some keep the change of time and others do not, as this would have a disruptive effect on the single market. "

The UK has already considered synchronizing its clocks with others. Matching the time of France and Germany to the assumption of the redundancy principle of the Daylight Savings Act to advance the British clocks by one hour, synchronizing the country with much of the 'Europe. Part of the reason why the proposed test failed in 2012 was due to concerns about road accidents. Critics have argued that darker mornings would mean more road accidents, while supporters have argued that lighter evenings would mean fewer accidents. A report published in 2017 by the British Journal of Medicine did not conclude on the effects of the late hour on road accidents.

The failed bill also met with strong resistance from the Scottish National Party. Indeed, maintaining BST would mean that parts of northern Scotland would not receive sunlight until 10am in the deepest winter, which some say could be dangerous for children who go to school. This shows how quickly a question about time can become political. The unit of time can support the trade and internal communications, but what time is kept?

China, for example, geographically overlaps five time zones, but the People's Republic of China can only keep one. This means that the time is the same in Beijing, in western Xinjiang, at 3,292 km. The time zone is optimized for the capital, where the sun rises around 7 am, but will not surface until around noon in Xinjiang.

The EU does not say that all of its states should adopt the same time zone, but it does show that time can be a political tool, especially for instilling a sense of collective identity. The timing of the proposal coincides with the Brexit deadline of March 2019, although it is not clear how the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU would affect any changes to the time zone. (BuzzFeed reported that the UK was pressuring other EU countries to prevent them from changing clocks). What happens, for example, if the United Kingdom ends up with one time and the Republic of Ireland with another?

"It's a hypothetical situation and we can not say anything," says Brivio, although another spokesperson had previously told the BBC that he could not see the suggestion causing any particular difficulties on the other side from the Irish border.

Time will tell us. An informal meeting on the proposal is scheduled for 29 October. For the moment, do not forget to take advantage of the extra hour Sunday, it could be the last.

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