Brussels published clock-change schedule to 2031, yet 84 percent of respondents want it scrapped

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, at 3 a.m. we will turn the clocks back to 2 a.m. and relive the hour we lost in spring. Sunday will last 25 hours. For most people this means longer sleep, while the less pleasant consequence is that it will get dark earlier in the evening. In Koper, on the Slovenian coast, the sun will set at 18:04 on Saturday and already at 17:02 on Sunday. In the morning it will get light an hour earlier, with sunrise at 6:34. The change does not, of course, shorten the day, it only shifts its position on our clocks. Days continue to get shorter, currently by about three minutes a day.

Scrapping the change won the public consultation, but in practice it is going nowhere. The European Commission proposed abolishing seasonal clock changes in 2018, and the European Parliament backed it a year later. In the public consultation, 84 percent of the 4.6 million participants supported abolition. But the member states have not agreed on a common solution. Among the open questions is whether to keep summer or standard time permanently, while not wanting new time differences between neighbours.

So the clock changes are not ending. In March this year the Commission published the schedule of switches all the way to 2031 and at the same time commissioned a new study on the effects of changing the clocks, due to be finished by the end of the year. Whether this will shift the European negotiations again is not yet known. We will next switch to summer time on 28 March 2027.

Slovenia has been changing the clocks since 1983, when the then Yugoslavia introduced summer time in order to save energy. How much is actually saved today is far less clear. Opponents of the measure warn that moving the clock hands has a negative effect on the body clock, mood and health. According to N1, sleep experts recommend permanent winter time because it is better aligned with the natural rhythm.

The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) also says that standard, that is winter, time is better for the internal body clock. At the changeover some people may feel tiredness, poorer concentration or sleep disturbances, although the autumn change is generally easier than the spring one. A regular bedtime, exercise and enough daylight help. People should use the morning light for an active start to the day, and on a rainy and very cold day they should replace running and walking with indoor exercise.

Most phones and computers will change the time automatically. Wall clocks, ovens and older devices will have to be changed by hand.