Daylight saving time has started again. At 2:00 am the clock advanced one hour to 3:00. For people who find the change from winter to summer time confusing, the mnemonic is: spring – clock ahead.
Previously, there was talk that the six-monthly rescheduling of the clock would eventually come to an end. A majority of the European Parliament wanted to stop this year. The EU member states can decide for themselves whether to switch permanently to summer or winter time afterwards, but the parliament has adopted a deferment clause to avoid a jumble of different times. The Member States have not yet taken any decisions on it.
Summertime had to save electricity
Due to the summer time, the night is an hour shorter, it is darker in the morning and light for longer in the evening. Daylight saving time was conceived to allow people to make more use of the available daylight. That could save on electric lighting. Opponents doubt this and many people say that they suffer physically from the shifting of time: it disrupts the biological clock.
Daylight saving time has been in effect in the Netherlands since 1916, although different rules were applied thereafter. In fact, there was no daylight saving time at all from 1946 to 1976. Since 1996, DST starts on the last weekend in March and returns to standard time on the last weekend in October. Winter time is actually the ‘normal’ time.
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