SUMMER TIME CHANGE 2022. The summer time change has been set this weekend of March 26 and 27, 2022. As every year at the same time, this change to summer time makes us make a jump in time… and raises many questions.
the summer time change 2022 was scheduled overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Daylight saving time, like every year, involves skipping an hour in the middle of the night. A kind of leap into the future! We lose an hour of sleep, but in exchange gain an hour of sunshine at the end of the day. This time change accentuates the difference between France and solar time: this difference goes from one hour (GMT+1) during winter time to two hours (GMT+2). The end of the time change was decided by the European Parliament. But the removal of the measure should still be long overdue.
The time change, how does it work?
To pass this course serenely, a simple rule to remember: the summer time change always takes place on the night of the last Saturday to the last Sunday of March. At 2 a.m., the clock automatically changes to 3 a.m. It is therefore the image of the moving hands that must be remembered, with the first very concrete consequences from Sunday: we artificially “lose” an hour of sleep that night, but gain an hour of natural light at the end day from Sunday evening.
Questions answers
For the transition to summer time, do you move your watch forward or backward?
This is not to confuse them! Unlike the transition to winter time, the transition to summer time requires you to advance your watch by one hour. As a reminder, the official time in France then goes from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., and this, instantly.
Who had the idea of the time change?
If the time change was implemented in France in 1976, this idea had already been mentioned much earlier. In 1784, it was Benjamin Franklin who spoke about it in the Journal de Paris, already at the time evoking savings thanks to this process. Then US Ambassador to France, he hoped to reduce the consumption of candles. Today, the principle of the time change is to take advantage of the hours of natural sunshine in the evening in summer to consume less electricity.
Who is for what time in Europe?
In Europe, which countries are in favor of keeping daylight saving time all year round? The Irish, the Poles and the French, consulted in their respective countries, have all chosen summer time rather than winter time. On the other hand, several countries in northern Europe would like to keep winter time. This is the case of Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The Portuguese, Greeks, Cypriots and Maltese, satisfied with the system, would like to keep the time change.
What would happen if we stayed on winter time?
After voting to stop the time change in 2018, Europeans are still waiting for the time change to be permanently abolished. But there is still a question to be resolved: should we stay in winter time or summer time? By definitively adopting winter time, it is the spring and summer days that would be affected above all. At the end of June, the period during which sunshine is the strongest of the year, sunrise would occur around 5 a.m. (instead of 6 a.m.) and sunset would take place around 9 p.m. 10 p.m. in Paris.
Why does the time change always take place on weekends?
The Futura Sciences site explains in an article why the time change only takes place on weekends. Imagine the situation if the time change took place on a weekday, in the middle of the day: staggered trains, upset office hours… The site details: “The time change takes place at the time of more weak economic activities, that is, in our weekly rhythmic societies (why, by the way?), in the heart of the night from Saturday to Sunday. When the time it is does not matter much.”
When exactly does daylight saving time take place?
The transition to summer time always takes place on the last weekend of March, with a subtlety to be aware of: it must be the last full weekend of March. In 2022, the question does not arise since the month of March ends on a Thursday (the 31st) and not a Saturday, as has sometimes been the case. The transition to summer time occurs precisely on Sunday March 27 at 2 a.m.
Does daylight saving time really increase the risk of heart attacks?
According to various studies, the transition to summer time would be bad for your health. Liberation thus reports that an American study revealed, in 2014, that the risk of having a heart attack increases by 25% on the Monday following the transition to summer time. In question, the less good sleep which would have consequences on the “cellular stress”. A conclusion that Swedish researchers already shared in 2008. This risk, on the other hand, would not exist during the transition to winter time.
Summer time or winter time, which should be kept?
According to several chronobiologists interviewed by Le Figaro, it is preferable to live as close as possible to the rhythm of the sun. “Like all life on Earth, we evolve under the influence of the light/dark cycle on which our internal biological clock is synchronized”, explains daily Dr Claude Gronfier, neurobiologist at Inserm and vice-president of the French Society of chronobiology. “All of our physiology (our rhythms, our sleep, our cardiovascular system, our digestion, our cognition, our cells, etc.) is locked into this alternation,” he insists. This is why getting up while it is still dark, as is often the case in winter, is more difficult. Thus, if the time change is removed, it will be preferable to definitively adopt winter time: otherwise, we would be even further out of step with the sun and it would rise even later.
What are your sources for saying that energy savings are contested?
The time change was introduced in 1976 in France for reasons of energy saving at the start, in particular on lighting. This was indeed shortly after the oil shock of 1973. But the real effects on energy consumption are increasingly disputed. The savings would only be, according to the European Parliament Research Service (EPRS), estimated at between 0.5 and 2.5%. This is why the European Commission launched the debate on the subject in 2018.
Summer time all year round, is it a big change for farmers?
If we stayed on daylight saving time, what economic impact might that have? Some sectors should adapt, such as agriculture. Luc Smessaert, vice-president of the FNSEA at the time of the interview, thus explained to the magazine Challenges that the harvests should start later and that more employees should work at night. Incidences which would therefore have a direct impact, for example on the wages paid. Summer time is indeed further from natural time, on which farmers rely more.
The end of the time change announced, but postponed
The days will continue to lengthen in brightness until the summer solstice on June 21. As for the end of the time change, already voted by the European Parliament on March 26, 2019 but delayed by the Covid health crisis, it will not take place for several more years for reasons of coordination between the Member States. The change of time is indeed until now harmonized within the EU. Each EU Member State will have to decide on the time zone chosen and a final opinion will have to be given by the Parliament and the European Commission.
There is therefore little chance that this change of summer time 2022 will be the last. And several years of time changes still await us: the project to abolish the seasonal time change has indeed been “stuck” in the pipeline for several years, and has been delayed. In September 2018, the Transport Committee of the European Union envisaged the end of this measure for 2019. However, it was not until 2019 that the European Parliament adopted the project by majority, with one year of abolition of the time change. then set at 2021. Then the Covid-19 health crisis went through there, but also the political crisis that followed Brexit in 2020. Enough to put the time change on hold within the European institutions. For the end of the seasonal time change to take effect, it will also be necessary for the choice to remain in winter time or summer time to be recorded in the payees concerned.
On what date and at what time was the 2022 summer time change scheduled?
The daylight saving time change always takes place on the last (full) weekend of March, at 2 a.m., on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The 2022 summer time change was therefore scheduled for the night of Saturday March 26 to Sunday March 27, 2022, with a jump in the hands from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.
When and how does daylight saving time take place?
During the summer time change, at 2 am, you always have to advance the hands of your old watch or your ancestral clock by one hour. At 2 o’clock, France goes instantly to 3 o’clock. In more technical terms, the Hexagon “switches” from GMT+1 (winter time) to GMT+2 (summer time). If an hour of sleep is thus “lost”, night falls, on the other hand, one hour later in the evening. The maneuver therefore artificially loses one hour of sleep, but also artificially gains one hour of natural light at the end of the day, in addition to the natural and progressive lengthening of the days as the sun approaches. summer solstice, in June. Of course, smartphones like all connected devices switch to summer time automatically, without any intervention being necessary.
Will the time change end soon?
In February 2018, the European Parliament polled EU citizens on the subject of the time change. Of the 4.6 million Europeans who responded, 84% said they were in favor of removing the measure (a citizen consultation conducted in France, with 2.1 million participants via the National Assembly website, also gave a clear preference of 83.71% for the end of the time change and even to stay permanently on summer time). But it took another year until, in March 2019, the European Parliament adopted a majority project to end it. A deadline had even been set to put the time change in the closet: October 2021. The health crisis and the hesitations of European leaders will have finally given a few more years to the alternation between winter time and summer time. .
Is the March 2022 time change the last?
Not only is the March 2022 daylight saving time change not the last, most several other time changes are yet to follow. According to the European Commission, quoted by Le Figaro.fr, the abolition of the time change will probably not take place in 2022. Apart from the delay caused by the Covid health crisis, what is blocking is harmonization between the Member States . The European Union indeed knows three time zones today, and an EU directive suggests letting each State choose whether or not to abolish the time change, and then switch to either winter time or permanent summer time. This European Union directive has been validated by the European Parliament in March 2019, but it must also be done by the Council of Ministers (which unites the representatives of the different EU Member States). This is where negotiations stall.