This month of March will be held again on time change to daylight saving time 2023. The clocks should be advanced one hour to enter the daylight saving time. As tradition dictates, we will sleep one hour less that night.

When the hands of the clock strike two o’clock in the morning, they will have to be advanced to three o’clock. The spring time change is applied in all countries of the European Union (EU), with the intention of better aligning working hours with the daylight hours. From Sunday onwards it will be dawn and dusk later, until autumn.

what day to change the time?

The changeover to daylight saving time always takes place in Spain in the early morning of last Sunday in Marchtherefore, winter time is maintained for most of the month. The date of the time change will be night of March 25 to 26.

should the clock be set forward or backward?

During the summer time change, it is necessary to advance the clock by one hour. The exact time to do this is in the early morning of the 26th, when two o’clock will become three o’clock. If you expect to be asleep at that time, the most convenient thing to do is to set the clocks ahead when you go to sleep to wake up on Sunday with the real time.

how will Daylight Saving Time affect you?

The most immediate effect of the time change is that it will be sunrise and sunset one hour laterso we will have more sunlight in the afternoons.

what are the health effects of the change?

The change to daylight saving time can cause maladaptation and symptoms similar to those caused by ‘jet lag’: fatigue y general fatigue, daytime sleepiness, difficulty falling asleep at night, irritability, lack of concentration, decreased physical and intellectual performance. It is also possible to feel hunger at ungodly hours or, just the opposite, lack of appetite or feeling of fullness after a meal.

In any case, we humans are not the only ones who suffer from the time change. Research is also being carried out into the problems that can affect the animalsespecially those of farm. The time change alters the hours of for example in the pigscausing them to anxiety. It also modifies the hours of milking the cows (milk is expressed every 12 hours), which results in losses in total liters obtained at the end of the day.

how much is saved by the time change?

According to experts in favor of the time change, it means energy and economic savings. Since Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), more use is made of the hours of sunshine, so no electricity is consumed. The calculation made by the IDAE is of about 6 euros per year. Seen this way, it may seem like a tiny amount, and they know it, but if you multiply these 6 euros by the 24 million households in Spain, the saving amounts to 144 million euros in our country.

will it be the last time change?

The European Commission had originally set itself the goal of ending the changes in 2019, but the plan was too ambitious and the European Parliament then proposed that the last year with a time change should be the 2021, however, this has not been the case either. The will of the MEPs was that the countries that remained on summer time would make the last changeover in March, and those that opted for winter time, in October.

which timetable will Spain stay with?

It is far from clear. The committee of experts appointed by the Government to decide whether Spain stays with winter or summer time did not agree on what was best and although a period of reflection was opened to make a decision, everything is now up in the air waiting for Europe to take up the issue again.