In the night of Sunday, October 30th, the clock is turned again and winter time begins. At 3 a.m. the clocks go back one hour. Then it is lighter earlier in the morning and rather dark in the afternoon. Here you will find everything you need to know about the time change.

More on the topic: The best tips against mini-jetlag after the time change

This year, on the night of Saturday, October 29th, to Sunday, October 30th, 2022, the clocks in Germany will change to winter time. Clocks are set back at 3:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

That means you gain an hour that night and get an extra hour of sleep. At the same time, with the changeover to winter time, it is light earlier, but it is also getting dark earlier.

In detail: From the end of the week, the sun sets in western Germany at around 5:10 p.m. and in the east even a good half hour earlier.

This example is often used as a reminder: In summer, the garden furniture is placed in front of the house on the terrace, so the clock has to be put forward.

In winter, on the other hand, you put the garden furniture back in the basement or in the shed, and the clock has to be put back as well.

More mnemonics:

The time change on October 30 is usually not a big effort: From a purely technical point of view, the time change is unproblematic. Radio clocks and the television set change over automatically. The atomic clocks of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig are the clocks that keep time in Germany. The signals are transmitted via transmitters, with which the radio-controlled clocks automatically adapt to the time change.But be careful with analogue clocks: they have to be changed independently.

In the case of smartphones, the changeover is carried out without any action being taken, provided the corresponding function is not deactivated. You can check this with the following activation path:

According to the will of the EU Parliament, the clock should be turned for the last time in March 2021. However, their abolition has not yet been finally settled.

So far, the EU member states have not yet agreed on a common approach. This is considered important to avoid a patchwork of different times.

A promising initiative to really abolish the time change is currently not in sight. The presidency of the EU countries – the Czech Republic is currently in charge – has not put the issue on the agenda.

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the German government has not yet decided whether it prefers permanent summer or winter time. “From the point of view of the federal government, it is important to prevent time islands and to ensure a harmonized internal market,” the ministry announced in October 2020.

A Europe-wide impact assessment is also a prerequisite for “an appropriate and harmonized approach”. “The EU Commission has not yet submitted such an impact assessment,” said Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU).

Surf tip: causes and tips – Tired in autumn: That’s behind it, you can do that about it

The consequences of any change in the status quo would indeed be significant. There are three time zones in the EU, the largest of which is Central European Time, stretching from Spain to Poland. With permanent summer time, it would not be light until morning in winter in the west – but also in the north-west – of the continent. In Vigo on the Spanish Atlantic coast the sun would not rise until 10.01 a.m. on December 21, in Brest in French Brittany at 10.07 a.m. and in North German Emden at 09.45 a.m.

If winter were to last, it would get dark an hour earlier than usual in the summer, and not only in the beer garden or in the beach bar. The sun would also rise extremely early in the east of the EU: in Bialystok in Poland that would be on June 21 at 3:01 a.m., in Warsaw at 3:15 a.m. and in Berlin at 3:44 a.m.

The German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine advocates maintaining normal time – i.e. winter time. Daylight, and in particular the blue component of sunlight, is the “main timer” for the internal clock in humans and decisive for the wake-sleep rhythm. According to the experts, all this is best ensured by the winter period.

By switching to summer time, however, there is a risk of a lack of sleep, which leads to loss of concentration and performance as well as more accidents. The German Teachers’ Association also fears health risks for students in the event of a permanent switch to summer time.

Incidentally, a majority of people in Germany do not believe that the abolition of the time change planned by the EU will soon be implemented. 63 percent of those surveyed have written off the project for the foreseeable future, according to a representative survey by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of DAK-Gesundheit. At the same time, 72 percent of those surveyed stated that they considered the changeover to be “superfluous”.

Find out more: 2021 at the earliest – when the last hour of the time change will strike

The necessary coordination among the member states is still a long time coming. According to the EU Commission, “the ball is in the Member States’ court”. However, the 27 countries are arguing about how exactly the elimination of the time change should be implemented. And without agreement, the whole project can even fail. In the course of the debates, it became clear that some EU countries – Portugal, for example – are basically towards the end of the time change .

Actually, energy should be saved…

Since 1996, clocks have changed in the European Union in March and October. Summer time has existed in Germany since 1980. Originally, energy was to be saved thanks to better use of daylight.

In fact, there is no evidence that the time change saves any significant amount of energy. The Federal Environment Agency argues, for example: “Due to the time change in summer, the light is actually switched on less often in the evening – in spring and autumn, however, there is more heating in the morning hours. That cancels each other out.”

The Office for Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag comes to the conclusion that “at best only very small energy savings can be achieved”. An evaluation of studies from different countries in 2016 revealed possible changes in the areas of electricity consumption and space heating of no more than one percent.

A survey of around 700 companies and associations in the German energy industry did not produce any different results.

Daylight saving time shakes up the rhythm: Not everyone copes with the time change right away, many need a few days until their biorhythm is back in sync. “Anyone who noticeably has trouble with the time change should not get behind the wheel themselves, but let themselves be driven,” warns the ADAC.

In addition, after the time change in spring, the risk of accidents involving wildlife increases. Because of the time change, the morning rush hour falls from one day to the next in the twilight. Many wild animals roam in it because it offers them protection from predators. “Especially deer are very active in the spring and looking for food. Many wild boar packs are out and about with their piglets. They often cross the streets and collide with cars or motorcycles,” according to the ADAC.

Actually, the time change makes little sense. Find out here where the strange tradition of turning the clock twice a year came from and why it is unlikely to be abolished.

Year in, year out, for almost four decades: time change in Germany. When daylight saving time starts again on Sunday, it could be one of the last times. Time to take care of some claims.