In the night between Saturday 25 e Sunday 26 March summer time will return, with the hands of the clocks moving one hour forward at 2 o’clock. You will therefore sleep one hour less but recover one more hour of light. This is recalled by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) promoter, together with Consumerismo No Profit, of a petition to maintain summer time throughout the year.
Change the time forward or backward?
One of the most frequent doubts when the time changes arrive concerns the clock hands: should they be moved forward or backward? This time, as in every spring, the answer is “forward”. At two in the morning on Sunday, therefore, it will be necessary to move the hands to three. This means that the alarm clock, programmed for the same time every day, will actually sound an hour earlier. The advantage will be in the evening: we will have an extra hour of light. Daylight saving time will last until Sunday 29 October 2023, when solar time will come back into effect. And at that point, this time at 3 in the night, the hands will be moved back an hour and will return to mark 2. in exchange we will have one more hour of sleep (the one we now lose), and one less hour of light. The changeover thus takes place twice a year: on the last Sunday in March and then again on the last Sunday in October. It is therefore essential to remember to move the hands, but not for devices such as smartphones that require automatic updating.
Why do you change the time
Daylight saving time has been introduced definitively in 1966, and one of the main reasons behind the decision to adopt such a change in measuring time is, quite simply, the saving in electricity consumption. By making our waking hours coincide with those in which the Sun gives natural light, we can turn on fewer light bulbs with a clear advantage for the bill, but also for the planet, in terms of consumption (and pollution). Summer time was born precisely to promote energy savings in times of crisis and Italy adopted it for the first time during the WWI.
Savings on bills of almost 400 million
Based on Sima’s estimates, in 2023 alone, the adoption of permanent summer time throughout the year would produce direct savings in bills of 382 million euros on the basis of current electricity tariffs in our country, thanks to lower energy consumption for about 720 million kWh. Savings that would increase if electricity tariffs were to increase during the year. “To all this – it is explained – there would be a massive cut in climate-changing emissions equal to 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide less, equivalent to that absorbed by planting from 2 to 6 million new trees, with benefits for human and planetary health“.
“Enough Daylight Time”
“The abandonment of the double annual time change would also stop even the small circadian rhythm disturbances that we experience today in the transition from standard time to summer time and vice versa, with beneficial effects on the health of citizens” – adds President Sima, Alexander Miani. For these reasons Sima is asking the government today Melons to commit to achieving the definitive abandonment of winter time in Italy by adopting summer time all year round. A possibility foreseen by the European Union, which already in 2019 approved a directive that leaves wide discretion to the Member States, hoping for coordination between the various nations to avoid repercussions on trade and cross-border movements.
Reduce energy consumption
“The serious energy crisis we are experiencing following the outbreak of war in Ukraine since February 2022 and the need to make the best use of the resources available today invites us to reflect again on the international scene – says Sima president, Alessandro Miani – Citizens have been asked for efforts to avoid waste and reduce energy consumption for over a year, but the State must also commit itself by exploiting the possibilities offered by the EU in order to eliminate inconvenience to the population, adopting those tools, such as summer time permanent, which would produce multiple benefits for everyone: families, businesses, the environment and collective health“.