This weekend we are switching to winter time. However, studies show that this time change is no longer very relevant. It should have been removed last year.
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MEPs had voted to delete it, but the Covid crisis stopped the project, and the reform is at a standstill.
If the time change is criticized, it is firstly because the energy savings linked to the reduction in artificial lighting time are no longer as significant as that (due to the generalization of low-consumption light bulbs and technological progress): the time change only brings a 0.07% saving on electricity consumption in France according to theEnvironment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe). On the other hand, chronobiologicals criticize negative effects on health. By modifying our schedules of exposure to the sun, the change of time twice a year can disturb the internal clock, the hormonal rhythm and sleep, for a few days.
Artificial light and the social rhythm only partially erase the time difference with the sun since we are on the 152nd time change in France. But “sunlight is the most powerful synchronizer of our biological rhythm, explains Claude Gronfier chronobiologist and researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm)it has more impact than artificial light.” In general, the transition to winter time is better experienced than the transition to summer time. But Europeans, consulted in 2019, were 84% in favor of the abolition of this time change.
The European Council had established that each State would be free to choose. But the International Federation of Chronobiological Societies recommends sticking to winter time for public health reasons, because winter time is closer to the solar cycle, and it’s more natural for the organism to adapt to it.
In the meantime, we’re going to set our clocks back an hour overnight from Saturday to Sunday. The main advice is to keep the same number of hours of sleep in the nights before and after the time change. And another practical adaptation, from Sunday October 30, it will be dark earlier in the evening. Road safety therefore invites cyclists and pedestrians to make themselves clearly visible, and calls on motorists to be vigilant.