![]() ![]() While we’re talking about danger, there also appears to be an impact on crime, with the lighter spring evenings less appealing to hoodlums. More accidents happen for a whole variety of reasons in the afternoon peak than in the morning peak, and studies have suggested that putting the clocks back in the autumn might increase accident numbers.įor this reason, Rospa (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) proposed that Britain retain daylight saving all year round, arguing that darker mornings were marginally more preferable to darker evenings. When the clocks move back in autumn, it means that the majority of these peak hours in the afternoon are in darkness. ![]() Peak driving times are between 8am and 10am in the morning between 3pm and 7pm in the afternoon. To do so all airplanes and airport timetables run off of UTC which is based off GMT. Plane schedules have to work around the issue of countries changing clocks at different times. “The last time we tested opinion among our members there was a narrow majority in favour of lighter evenings,” he said. But an NFU spokesman painted a more nuanced picture. The farming industry has traditionally disliked DST for its impact on everything from milking cows to reaping harvests. While the retail and tourism industries do benefit from the extra hour of summer evening daylight, that may well be offset by some of the health effects mentioned above. The mists of time Photograph: Siese Veenstra/EPA Is there an economic effect?ĭST is thought to have an impact on the economy but again it is a mixed picture. Studies suggest that although getting an “extra hour of sleep” when the clocks move back does not lead to people sleeping longer, the loss of an hour of sleep when the clocks move forward negatively affects sleeping patterns for several weeks afterwards. However they also found that the extra hour of sleep after the clocks went back in autumn decreased the risk of heart attacks in the first few weekdays after switching. Studies have found that the risk of having a heart attack increases in the first three weekdays after switching to DST in the spring. But critics argue that disruption to circadian rhythms (sleep patterns) can negatively impact on human health. Health impacts are widely touted: people can get more exposure to sunlight through the summer DST months, boosting their vitamin D levels. Some argue that DST does not really save energy, as less household usage in the evenings in summer might be offset by greater morning usage. But DST has far wider ramifications, for energy use, farming, even mood. Well at this time of year, an hour extra in bed for a start. ![]() Photograph: Anton Vaganov/Reuters What are the knock-on effects of daylight saving time? The clocks have stayed there ever since.Ĭlocks inside the control room of an abandoned Soviet-era optical radio telescope, on the slope of Mount Aragats, Armenia. Russia decided to stick with daylight saving all year round in 2011, but that led to darkness at noon in some latitudes, and so in 2014 it reverted to standard time in the autumn. In the antipodes, New Zealand moved its clocks forward at the end of September and Australian states that observe daylight saving (New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory) made the switch on the first Sunday in October. In the US, clocks go back on the first Sunday in November. What is happening this year?Īll EU member states move clocks back one hour on Sunday, under a law that harmonises the duration of wintertime to prevent a proliferation of different seasonal changes across neighbouring countries. Many countries dropped the ruse after 1918, only readopt it during the energy crises of the 1970s. The UK took the plunge in May 1916 and has stuck with it ever since. The idea of fiddling with time to save energy or make the day seem longer goes back more than 200 years, though it was not until the first world war that it was finally taken seriously.Ĭoal shortages throughout Europe prompted Germany and its ally Austria-Hungary to take up daylight saving in 1916 to preserve energy, and a flurry of other nations on both sides of the conflict quickly followed suit. Photograph: hogsvilleBrit/GuardianWitness When did it all start? Sundial on the Wedding Tower on the Darmstadt Mathildenhöhe. ![]()
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