The Switch to Winter Time

The Switch to Winter Time, or When to Turn the Clock?

This year in Latvia, the switch back from summer time to winter time will take place on 30 October 2011 at 03:00 (on the night from Saturday to Sunday), when the clock hands will need to be turned back one hour. When such a time shift happens, one cannot help but wonder who and when first had the idea of all this fuss?

The switch to winter time in 2013 will take place on 27 October at 04:00 (on the night from Saturday to Sunday).

History of the Time Change

In ancient times people oriented themselves by the celestial bodies - the sun and moon. They rose with sunrise, and there were no real problems with time planning. Then in Babylon, the day from sunrise to sunset began to be divided into 12 equal parts, or hours.

In ancient Rome, when clocks began to be constructed, it turned out that the previously established division created a certain absurdity, as one hour in summer was 75 minutes long and in winter - only 44 minutes, which is inconvenient. Today, although in some monasteries variable-length hours are still used, the Roman invention has prevailed overall - 24 hours of equal length.

Over the years, people have subordinated their lives to the clock and thus, to a certain extent, abandoned natural cycles. In summer we now rise well after sunrise, while in the evenings we stay awake long after sunset.

This inconsistency was reportedly noticed in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin, US ambassador to France, who published an article urging pleasure-seeking Parisians not to sleep away the bright morning hours, as by candles alone they could save around 96 million livres per year.

On 30 April 1916, also for reasons of economy, Germany became the first country to introduce the switch to summer time. It was soon followed by the allied countries - Great Britain, France and Ireland. Very soon the time change was also introduced in Russia, the USA and other countries.

Japan introduced the time change during the US occupation in 1946, but this tradition did not take hold. In the Land of the Rising Sun - Japan, as well as in China, India and Singapore - changing the clocks is not practised. After the collapse of the USSR, this position was also adopted by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

In countries close to the equator, the length of the day changes very little depending on the season, as the sun rises at roughly the same time. In polar regions, the familiar day-night alternation we know is replaced by the polar day and polar night. Therefore, even hypothetically, the advantages of summer or winter time can only be enjoyed by countries situated at latitudes from 30° to 55°.

The main justification for switching to winter or summer time rests on electricity consumption, as well as health research indicating that the longer a person can enjoy daylight, the more the synthesis of vitamin D in the body is promoted, which in turn has a beneficial effect on health overall.

The conclusion is that, since modern industrialisation, technologisation, urbanisation and all manner of other processes have distanced people from nature's rhythms - when the human body readily responded to the change of celestial bodies, waking with sunrise and going to sleep with sunset - the switch to winter or summer time is one of the solutions that allows not only saving energy but also balancing one's sense of wellbeing. I must admit, quite subjectively, that having adapted to summer time, upon switching to winter time I similarly wake for a while an hour earlier than the clock shows, and vice versa.

The Switch to Summer Time

In Latvia, the switch to summer time will take place on Sunday, 31 March, at 03:00 (on the night from Saturday to Sunday), with the clock hands turned forward one hour.

P.S. The switch to summer time and back in Latvia is governed by Cabinet Regulation No. 1010 of 26 October 2010 "On the Switch to Summer Time."