It’s already in the early hours of Sunday, October 26th. When it was 02:00, most Portuguese people there will have to set their clocks back an hour and enter the so-called winter time (in the Azores, it will be done at 01:00 on Sunday morning, changing to 00:00). The time change, we already know, dictates that there is earlier sunlight, but, on the other hand, it gets dark more quickly, in some periods even before 6 pm. The return to legal time (or summer time) takes place on March 29, 2026.
The historical origin of this practice dates back to the First World War, when some European countries decided to adjust their clocks in order to save energy resources, such as coal, and increase the hours of sunlight. On the other hand, the aim was also to better align the times of human activity with sunlight – today it is known that natural light has a strong impact on physical and mental health and that its lack can accentuate symptoms of seasonal depression, especially in winter. Portugal, which had followed Greenwich Mean Time since 1911, would also follow this practice by delaying the clock hands for the first time on June 17, 1916 (the opposite operation was carried out on November 1).
However, this change motivates increasing discussion. “The issue of natural lighting may no longer have as much weight nowadays, compared to the 20th century, when this change was implemented. Now we no longer depend exclusively on natural light to illuminate houses and streets, for example. To what extent does this extra hour of light allow people to make better use of the days? After more than 100 years, are the arguments for changing the time still relevant?. It’s all very debatable. Furthermore, dividing our rhythms into two times a year interferes a lot with our circadian rhythm, which is associated with the light period and regulates our sleep”, highlighted Gustavo Rojas, astronomy specialist at NUCLIO – Núcleo Interativo de Astronomia e Inovação em Educação, to DN, in 2022.
This week, on Monday, October 20, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that the country would propose to the European Union the definitive end of time changes in Europe. The Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, stated that this practice “no longer serves any purpose” nowadays. “It is a system that affects us all, that frustrates the majority and that even harms people”, he defended. The current time change regime is regulated by a directive (community law) from 2000, which provides that every year clocks are, respectively, moved forward and backward one hour on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, marking the beginning and end of summer time.
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