Summertime arrives this morning…and steals an hour of sleep

Summer time arrives at dawn, from this Saturday to Sunday, the 26th of March, to Portugal and […]

Summer time arrives at dawn, from this Saturday to Sunday, March 26, in Portugal and 27 other countries of the European Union. The sun will go down later and the days will get longer. But this Sunday, due to the time change, we're going to sleep less than an hour.

When it is 01:00 am on Sunday morning, the clocks will go forward 60 minutes in Mainland Portugal and Madeira. In the Azores, the change takes place at midnight, which becomes 1:00 am.

Although each country is autonomous in determining its calendar time, the decision to move clocks forward in summer and back in winter follows a European standard complied with by all member states since 1996.

In winter, the time of the mainland and Madeira follows that of the Greenwich meridian, recording a lag of 37 minutes in relation to solar noon.

But the correct time zone should be -1, that is, one hour ahead of Greenwich. This is not to bring us closer to the rest of the European Union.

But right next door there are differences, since in Spain the civil time is +1, this is because, at the time of World War II, Franco wanted the clocks to be aligned with those in Berlin. Currently, there are many Spaniards who claim a delay of one hour, so that their country is more in line with its neighbors.

In Europe, the time change started at the time of World War I and aimed to save fuel at a time when it was rationed.

Currently there is no longer an economic impact, but only a social one, as working hours coincide more with sunlight. Even so, the European Union reassess the maintenance of summer and winter timetables every five years.

In Portugal, in 1992, the Government, then headed by Cavaco Silva, adopted the central European timetable, but the option was much criticized, because, in winter, the sun rose very late and, in summer, it was daytime until after sunset. 22:00 pm. In 1996, the Government headed by António Guterres reset the old time.

Today the issue is not controversial in Portugal. And, from Sunday onwards, for many Portuguese, it will be really pleasant for the sun to set later. And those who work that night will have a shorter journey after all. They also worked an extra hour in October.

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