I can’t believe we are still doing the time-shifting thing in this day and age. It all started with Germany doing it, fiddling about gaining an hour at one end of the year and losing it at the other. Their plan started in 1916, and they became the first country to formally use daylight saving time (DST) to save on fuel during the First World War, that extra hour was good for war production and consequently saved valuable energy for lighting.

DST (known as Hora de Verão, here in Portugal, meaning ‘summer time’) is observed nationwide from the last Sunday in March, when mainland Portugal and Madeira advance one hour to UTC+01:00, and the Azores advances one hour to UTC+00:00, then back again in October.


Daylight Saving Time is not even effective

Does changing the clocks really conserve fuel? According to Stanford University, one meta-analysis of 44 studies found that it essentially does not, leading to just a 0.34% reduction in electricity consumption. Some research shows it even backfires.

Plenty of countries around the world have opted out of it entirely. These include all of Asia and most of Africa. Over the past 10 years, Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Namibia, Russia, Samoa, Syria, Turkey, Uruguay and most of Mexico have all ended the practice, according to the Pew Research Center.

Japan, India and China are the largest countries around the world that don't observe daylight DST. Russia, most African and most South American countries don't observe it either. China currently observes China Standard Time

The UK and several other European countries followed Germany’s lead. Soon daylight saving became the norm, and the USA followed in 1918.


Myth or Truth: Daylight Saving Time was created to benefit farmers?

The truth of the matter is the agriculture industry lobbied against daylight saving time in 1919. Some believe it was then that farmers became associated with DST, even though they were only involved because they were against it. The ‘official’ time is largely irrelevant to farmers, their work being governed by the natural cycle of the day, as it has been for centuries. After all, cows and sheep don’t have watches do they? They instinctively know when feeding time is, that dusk is the time to settle down and dawn you start getting up, and shifting the time must surely give them some kind of jet lag!

Credits: envato elements;

Why we should end this Daylight Saving thing?

Getting rid of DST might help the negative health effects of losing an hour of sleep, for which there is plenty of evidence. That one hour disrupts our sleep patterns and throws our body clocks out of kilter. Most living things have these circadian rhythms - animals, plants, and even microorganisms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm, and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night, and these rhythms influence important functions in the human body. Anybody who works the night shift will know how difficult it is to adjust.

It’s confusing enough when travelling to handle changes in time zones, and you need to be aware of potential time discrepancies when booking flights during DST change times. Jet lag is enough to cope with as it can cause daytime fatigue, an unwell feeling, trouble staying alert and stomach problems, and the body needs anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to acclimatise at the best of times.

Re-setting your body clock is mostly down to light. They say getting 15 to 30 minutes of direct sunlight as soon as you wake up, eat breakfast outside, or just sit in the sun and read. Sounds good to me, travelling or not.

Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan