Stop the Clock

Sunday, 02:00

Twice a year, Europe gives itself jet lag.

No flight. No holiday. Every March and October, more than half a billion people in over 40 countries move their clocks by an hour, and their bodies pay for it. The European Parliament voted to end this in 2019. The clocks are still changing.

Count your clock changes What you can do

Last Sunday of March. At 02:00 the clock jumps straight to 03:00. One hour of your night is gone.

In the UK, Ireland and Portugal, one hour earlier on the clock.

Next clock change Sunday 28 March 2027 Clocks go forward one hour · in 151 d 17 h 00 min
Days since Parliament voted to stop it 2,772 Vote of 26 March 2019: 410 for, 192 against
Clock changes since that vote 16 Dates already published to 2031

Monday, 07:00

The alarm rings. You slept 40 minutes less.

Your body clock runs on light, not on law. Moving the clock by an hour is a small, sudden jet lag that takes days to wear off. Researchers across Europe keep finding the same pattern in the days after a change.

−40min

Average sleep lost on the night of the spring change.

USTime-use data · Barnes & Wagner 20091

+5%

Heart attacks in the first week after clocks go forward.

SESweden · Janszky & Ljung, NEJM 20082

+8%

Ischaemic stroke hospitalisations in the two days after a clock change.

FIFinland · Sipilä et al., Sleep Medicine 20163

+11%

Hospital depression diagnoses after clocks go back in autumn. The rise took about ten weeks to fade.

DKDenmark · Hansen et al., Epidemiology 20174

+6%

Fatal car crashes in the week after clocks go forward.

USUS road data · Fritz et al., Current Biology 20205

31%

of Germans say a clock change has given them health or psychological problems. 76% want it abolished.

DEGermany · Forsa poll for DAK, Oct 20256

If everyone in the EU lost those 40 minutes, it would add up to about 34,000 years of sleep in a single night. 450 million people × 40 minutes. A back-of-the-envelope figure, using the average from the study above.

Each number comes from one peer-reviewed study or survey. For any one person the effect is small. Across a continent it adds up.

Monday, 09:00

Europe goes to work, half awake.

The clock change ripples through timetables, workplaces and computer systems. The reason it was introduced barely registers any more.

Departures · The Monday afterALL TIMES LOCAL, MORE OR LESS
TimeWhoWhat happensStatus
02:00 Night trains In October, many night trains stop and wait for an hour so they don't arrive early. In March they start the day an hour late. HOLD 60 MIN
02:30 Servers & software The hour from 02:00 to 02:59 happens twice in October and not at all in March. Every log file, invoice and scheduled job has to cope. DUPLICATE
07:00 Monday shift On the Monday after the spring change, US mining data shows 5.7% more workplace injuries and 68% more workdays lost to them.1 CAUTION
09:00 Energy savings The original reason. In 2018 the European Commission called the saving "marginal". Italy's grid operator put it at 0.2% of yearly electricity use.7 CANCELLED
22:00 Night shifts Nurses, drivers and security staff work a 9-hour night in October and a 7-hour night in March. Rotas and payroll have to handle both. ±1 HOUR

Monday, 13:00

It's 13:00. In much of Europe, the sun hasn't reached noon yet.

The sun is highest at solar noon. A well-set clock puts that close to 12:00. Summer time pushes it an hour later, on top of time zones that already run fast. Spain has used Central European Time since 1940, so in Galicia the summer sun peaks at about 14:30.

Monday, 17:00

Ending the switch means picking one time. See what each choice does.

A country can stop changing clocks by keeping today's winter time (standard time) or today's summer time all year. The chart shows a full year of daylight for each option.

Move across the chart to read sunrise and sunset for any day.

OptionClock jumps a yearSunrise after 08:00Sunset after 21:30Latest sunrise

Sleep and body-clock scientists in Europe and the US recommend permanent standard (winter) time: morning light keeps the body clock on track, while late evening light delays sleep.1112 Whichever time a country keeps, the first step is the same. Stop switching.

Monday, 19:00

How many clock changes have you lived through?

Counted from the IANA time zone database, which records every clock change in every country, including the wartime ones.14

Showing an example. Change the country and year to see your own tally.

Clock-change tallyGermany · born 1990
74clock changes lived through
Nights cut short by an hour
37
Since Parliament voted to stop them
16
Still to come by your 80th birthday
88

Like crossing a time zone 74 times without going anywhere.

Post my tally

Monday, 20:00

The people who feel it most.

Composite portraits. The names are invented. The situations are common and documented.

M

Marta, 41

Night nurse · Vigo, Spain

“In October my night shift lasts nine hours. In March it's seven, and my body still thinks it's the middle of the night when I drive home.”

Night workers absorb the missing or extra hour directly. Vigo sits so far west of its time zone that the summer sun peaks at 14:35.

J

Jan, 58

Dairy farmer · Friesland, Netherlands

“My cows don't read clocks. I move milking a few minutes a day for a week, and they still take time to settle.”

Animals run on routine and light. Many farmers spread the change over several days so the herd isn't stressed. Summer solar noon in Leeuwarden: 13:37.

A

Aino, 16

Student · Helsinki, Finland

“After the spring change my alarm goes off at what feels like six. School starts at eight anyway.”

Teenagers already have late body clocks. Losing an hour in spring pushes them further out of step with school. Summer solar noon in Helsinki: 13:20.

S

Sofie, 34

Parent · Ghent, Belgium

“The clocks change in one night. My two-year-old takes a week to catch up, and so do I.”

Small children keep strict sleep rhythms. Parents often move bedtime in small steps for days around each change. Summer solar noon in Ghent: 13:45.

Monday, 21:00

Things people say about the clock change.

They say“It saves energy.”

ActuallyThe European Commission called the saving “marginal” in 2018. Italy's grid operator put it at about 0.2% of the country's yearly electricity use. Modern lighting is efficient, and heating and cooling don't follow the clock.7

They say“We get an extra hour of daylight.”

ActuallyThe amount of daylight doesn't change. Summer time moves an hour of light from the morning to the evening, and every body clock in the country has to follow.

They say“It was made for farmers.”

ActuallyGermany and Austria-Hungary introduced it in 1916 to save coal for the First World War. Farm animals keep their own hours, so farmers have to work around it.

They say“One hour is nothing.”

ActuallyTo a body clock, one hour is a time zone. Studies from Sweden, Finland and Denmark find more heart attacks, strokes and depression diagnoses after a change.234

They stopped. Nothing broke.

These European countries no longer change their clocks. Some later adjusted which time they keep; Russia moved to permanent winter time in 2014. None went back to switching.

  • Iceland1968
  • Georgia2005
  • Russia2011
  • Belarus2011
  • Armenia2012
  • Turkey2016
  • Azerbaijan2016

Monday, 22:00

How Europe got stuck with it.

  1. 1916

    A wartime measureGermany and Austria-Hungary put the clocks forward on 30 April to save coal. Britain follows three weeks later.

  2. 1966–1981

    The comebackAfter decades of on-and-off use, countries bring summer time back, many citing the 1970s oil crisis. Italy in 1966, Spain 1974, France 1976, the Netherlands and Poland 1977, Germany 1980.14

  3. 1980–1996

    One rule for everyoneEuropean directives line up the start dates, then the end dates. From 1996 the whole EU switches on the same two Sundays.

  4. 2001

    Made permanentDirective 2000/84/EC sets the current rule with no end date: last Sunday of March to last Sunday of October.

  5. Summer 2018

    4.6 million answersThe largest response to any Commission consultation. 84% want the clock change to end. It wasn't a representative poll; 70% of answers came from Germany.8

  6. Sep 2018

    The Commission proposes an endEach country would pick permanent summer or winter time. The plan was to stop in 2019.7

  7. 26 Mar 2019

    Parliament votes yes410 for, 192 against, 51 abstentions. Last change in 2021.9

  8. 2021

    The deadline passesNational governments in the Council never agree a position. The file stalls.10

  9. Oct 2025

    Spain pushes againSpain's prime minister calls the switch obsolete and asks the EU to end it from 2026.13

  10. 2026

    Booked until 2031The EU publishes clock-change dates through October 2031. The Council says no timeline for a decision has been set.13

  11. Today

    Day 2,772 of waitingThe proposal's official status: “Awaiting Council's 1st reading position”.10

Monday, 23:00

Before you sleep, do one thing.

The European Parliament said yes in 2019. Since then the proposal has been waiting for the Council, where national governments meet. Governments move when enough voters ask.

1 · Spread it

Share this page

Post it with #StopTheClock. Everyone you know changed their clocks twice this year too.

2 · Ask your government

Write to your minister

In the Council, transport ministers handle this file. Send this to your country's transport ministry, or to your MP.

3 · Keep Brussels on it

Ask your MEP to keep pushing

Parliament already voted. Ask your Members of the European Parliament to press the Council for a decision, and follow the file yourself.

Find your MEPs Track the file

Sources

  1. Barnes, C. M. & Wagner, D. T. (2009). Changing to daylight saving time cuts into sleep and increases workplace injuries. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5). doi.org/10.1037/a0015320
  2. Janszky, I. & Ljung, R. (2008). Shifts to and from daylight saving time and incidence of myocardial infarction. New England Journal of Medicine, 359. PubMed 18971502
  3. Sipilä, J. et al. (2016). Changes in ischemic stroke occurrence following daylight saving time transitions. Sleep Medicine, 27–28. PubMed 27938913
  4. Hansen, B. T. et al. (2017). Daylight savings time transitions and the incidence rate of unipolar depressive episodes. Epidemiology, 28(3). research.regionh.dk
  5. Fritz, J. et al. (2020). A chronobiological evaluation of the acute effects of daylight saving time on traffic accident risk. Current Biology, 30(4). doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.045
  6. DAK-Gesundheit (22 Oct 2025). Forsa survey of 1,003 people in Germany, 30 Sep – 2 Oct 2025. dak.de
  7. European Commission (2018). Proposal for a directive discontinuing seasonal changes of time, COM(2018) 639, explanatory memorandum. eur-lex.europa.eu
  8. NPR (31 Aug 2018). EU backs abolishing summer and winter time changes; 84 percent agree. npr.org
  9. European Parliament press release (26 Mar 2019), ref. 20190321IPR32107. europarl.europa.eu
  10. Legislative Observatory, procedure 2018/0332(COD), Seasonal changes of time. oeil.europarl.europa.eu
  11. Roenneberg, T. et al. (2019). Why should we abolish daylight saving time? Journal of Biological Rhythms, 34(3). doi.org/10.1177/0748730419854197
  12. European Biological Rhythms Society, European Sleep Research Society & Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. Joint statement on ending clock changes in the EU. fgu.cas.cz (PDF)
  13. Euro Weekly News (5 Sep 2026). Spain's 2026 plan to end clock changes has failed, and the next change is already locked in. euroweeklynews.com
  14. IANA time zone database, read through Python's zoneinfo. iana.org/time-zones
  15. Map: Natural Earth, via the world-atlas package. Sun times: NOAA solar equations. gml.noaa.gov