On Sunday, March 29, the country will switch to daylight saving time, and the clocks will need to be set forward one hour. The article explains why seasonal time changes were introduced, the arguments of supporters and opponents, and how it may affect health and transport. It also gives views on possible energy savings, health risks, and a simple rule to avoid confusing the spring and autumn clock changes.

Next Sunday, March 29, our entire country will switch to “summer” time. The clocks will need to be set forward by 1 hour. Twice a year (on the last Sunday of October and March) we change the clocks. Let us try to analyze why this is necessary and how it affects us.
The idea of moving the hands of the clock was preceded by the idea of introducing time zones on Earth, proposed in 1878 by the Canadian engineer S. Fleming. Time zones were first introduced in the USA in 1883. The introduction of summer time, from the standpoint of time zones, means a shift to the time of the neighboring eastern time zone.
Even earlier, before the introduction of time zones, civil time was common in most countries. It differed for any two points with different longitudes. The civil time of any locality can be easily determined by the Sun. Exactly at noon, the Sun occupies the highest point in the sky. At this moment, with the help of astronomical instruments, local civil time can be determined with great accuracy — 12 o’clock noon.
Since the 19th century, different states began to introduce a single time for these countries, most often the civil time of the capital. In Russia, the civil time of the meridian of the Pulkovo Observatory, called Petersburg time, was chosen as the single time. This time was used in tsarist Russia for railway timetables and telegraphy until the revolution itself.
It should be said that the switch to summer time is not carried out in all countries. In some of them such a switch has never been made, in others it was abandoned over time for various reasons. Debates about the usefulness or harm of switching to summer time have not subsided for 100 years.
ARGUMENTS “FOR”:
Gosstandart and the previous State Duma of the Russian Federation considered the proposal to abolish summer time and switch from the so-called decree time to standard time to be impractical. It was believed that confirmation of the correctness of such reasoning was the fact that summer time is used by more than 100 countries around the world, including EU countries. In many of them, alongside summer time, decree time is also permanently in effect, when the clock hands are set one hour ahead compared with standard time. These bodies argued that this way significant energy resources are saved and that, allegedly, official studies and statistics deny the existence of any harmful effect of moving the clock hands on the human body.
ARGUMENTS “AGAINST”:
There are far more of them today. Most countries have abandoned the switch to “winter” and “summer” time. In fact, besides Russia, only 8 countries use a time shift of +2 hours compared with standard time. Japan does not change the clock at all. Some former republics of the USSR have abandoned the practice of introducing summer time. In 2005, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan did so definitively.
The most serious arguments for abolishing summer time are held by the St. Petersburg “Committee for the Restoration of Life According to Standard Time.” Its members have two arguments: electricity savings amount to only 0.5%, and the harm to health is enormous and far from always acknowledged by doctors. According to Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Valentin Pokrovsky, “studies show that when switching to new time, small children and elderly people experience stress reactions, disturbances in sleep patterns, cardiovascular and immune system activity, and metabolic processes.”
According to the committee, during the first five days after the spring clock change, the number of emergency calls for patients with hypertension and heart attacks increases by 11%, there is a 60% jump in suicide attempts, and deaths from heart attacks increase by 75%. The rise in accidents reaches 11% after 5 days, 29% after two weeks, and the total number does not return to its original level even by the twentieth day.
According to the latest data published in Der Spiegel, both American and European scientists have concluded that switching to “summer” time actually increases electricity consumption. As it turned out, ordinary citizens are unable to save energy by moving the clock hands forward. Energy consumption not only does not decrease, but increases by 1-4%. This is explained by the growing need for heating in the early cool morning hours and the increased need for air conditioners during long warm summer evenings.
On the country’s railways, these two times a year are an emergency situation. In spring, on the night the clocks are moved forward, all trains are scheduled to arrive at their final station one hour late. This fact is very important for those traveling with transfers. It is precisely this “lost” hour that can later lead to a delay of an entire day. Well, in autumn all trains at the nearest station after the clock change stand idle for an additional hour so that they can then continue according to schedule. Passengers are “given” an extra hour of sleep.
But one way or another, the time will be changed, so it is better to prepare your body for the upcoming stress a few days in advance: keep to a daily routine, do not get nervous, get enough sleep, and do not overload yourself with work. It is also important for good well-being to take vitamins and make up for the lack of sunlight by all available means, for example, by going to a tanning salon, but not for long.
In conclusion, a small trick to avoid confusing which way to move the clock hands in spring and autumn — a simple mnemonic rule (based on the first letter of the season): In spring — Forward, in autumn — Back.