Cityvisitor blog

The great time debate

Why do we change our clocks twice a year?


On the face of it, the concept of changing time sounds like a profound one. Yet when you think about it, time is merely just a construct designed to put order into our daily lives.
The EU is considering abolishing daylight saving changes as a lot of people in a recent survey across Europe found that many people were not supporters of it.
There is certainly an argument to put forward about leaving the time the same all year round. It causes a huge amount of confusion for a lot of people and the number of times people end up being late for work because they didn’t realise the clocks had changed is a number I can’t count.
There is also evidence that changing the hours in a day can have an adverse effect on our health.
However, daylight saving was originally introduced to help farmers and other people who work outdoors make the most of the hours when they have the light to perform their work. You also wonder how early people would wake up if it is daylight at a very early hour. Adapting the hours a couple of times a year helps people sleep better.
I used to get confused about when the clocks went forward and when they went backwards until I learned the rule ‘Leap into spring’. Others may remember it as ‘spring forward, fall back’ – fall being the American term for Autumn. After that, I found it easy enough.
My grandad always moves the clocks forward a day before they are due to change so that he can get used to the time adjustment. I always found it funny as he must have been very confused for the entire day whenever he looked at the time!
It is one of those traditions we will lose if it is abolished. Of course, Britain will be out of the EU by the time the changes are implemented so it may not affect us anyway.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45366390

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