The Fall Back Time Is Coming. Is This the End for Daylight Savings?

On October 27, Ukraine and Europe will switch to daylight savings time, also known as winter time. This upcoming one-hour skip is supposed to be the last time change on Ukrainian territory. But in reality, it’s not that clear-cut, considering that the law for repealing daylight savings is yet to be signed into effect by Ukraine’s president.

Переводимо годинники!
Time to turn our clocks!

Winter Time (That Doesn’t Exist)

This Sunday, on October 27, Ukraine will switch to winter hours for the last time. The usual switch-back to summer time won’t be happening this March. At least according to the law approved by Verkhovna Rada on July 16, 2024.

This decision was met with widespread discourse, which is still very much ongoing. Some have waited on this change for years, while others see it as an unnecessary complication. Both sides have compelling arguments, though neither acts as the final decisive point.

Astronomically speaking, this issue should be viewed on a much larger scale, starting with the fact that the concept of time itself is a human construct. The 24-hour day division is arbitrary in itself, first established without any connection to celestial activity. 

Годинні пояси
Time Zones. Source: Dayspedia.com

The only thing that exists in objective reality is the midday point observed in any location. That is, the moment when the Sun reaches its apogee — its highest possible position in our sky. The traditional view was that this point more or less coincided with the 12th hour of the day.

Of course, this moment occurs at different points of day depending on location, so people had to come up with some sort of system. And so we invented time zones that outlined the exact number of hours that world clocks would adjust to in relation to the universal time.

Time zones were delineated along Earth’s meridian lines. The goal was to minimize the difference between astronomical midday points and the 12-hour mark on the clock. However, this idea doesn’t work that well in practice, given the world’s multistate structure. Many countries strive to follow a single time zone that usually matches that of its capital.

In reality, the concept of winter time is pure invention. The time zone that Ukraine follows between October and March is the default time zone for Kyiv and most of the country, covering its entire territory. But since geographical borders and meridian lines don’t match, this time zone isn’t a perfect fit for some of the country’s regions.

Американський плакат сторічної давнини
American vintage poster. Source: Wikipedia

Summer Time

It’s also important to remember that the 12-hour reference point for midday was created when the majority of the world’s population led a rural lifestyle. Their daily schedule was defined by sunrise and sunset, rather than the hands of the clock. Naturally, people weren’t that bothered by the fact that they had to wake up at four in the morning in summer and only at eight o’clock during winter.

Precise time keeping only became an issue as people began to flock to the cities en masse,  where their work days at factories or banks had to adhere to a timetable. Unlike farmworkers, urban laborers didn’t have to wake up with the birds at first light. Instead, they needed to follow a precise work schedule, which would preferably coincide with daylight hours.

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This is how we got our current daytime hours, with peak morning activity taking place between 8 AM and 10 AM. This begs the question: what should we do with the long daylight summer hours that precede our workday? After all, we get more of them than the daylight we have after work.

Карта показує розповсюдженість практики переходу на літній час. Синім кольором позначені регіони, де такий перехід застосовується, момаранчевим — регіони, де його було скасовано, червоним — регіони, де переходу на літній час ніколи не було.
Map showing the observation of daylight savings. Regions that turn the clocks are marked in blue, countries that removed the change are orange, and those that never followed it are in red. Source: Paul Eggert / The Universe. Space. Tech

This is how the concept of daylight savings was born. Its core idea is to adjust the clocks to better utilize daylight hours. This mattered more when we relied on candles and fuel lamps for illumination, and when electric lighting consumed most of the power we could generate.

Is This the End of Summer Time in Ukraine?

However, modern civilization directs most of its generated electricity elsewhere. We also no longer rely on candlelight. Moreover, there is no pressing need for such rigid scheduling. Many people are able to define their own work hours.

Consequently, the main arguments in favor of daylight saving are less relevant, while the arguments to abolish the time change gain more support. One of the key arguments for the latter is to do with human biorhythms. Our internal biological clock isn’t designed for such wide hourly gaps in time. It works well with consistent schedules, adjusting our waking routine minute by minute with the natural shift in sunrise hours.

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Циркадні ритми
Human circadian rhythms. Source: Wikipedia

So any clock changes pose a serious challenge for the entire human endocrine system. Sure, some people adjust easier than others, but it’s precisely these negative effects on our health that drive the public opinion in favor of removing daylight savings. 

That said, it’ll be a while yet until the issue is settled for good. Way back in 2021, EU member states were granted permission to decide their own policy on daylight savings. In practice, no member state has yet used this privilege, keeping up with the tradition of turning clocks twice a year, at the same time as Ukraine. Evidently, they found that potential issues with time harmonization outweighed other arguments in favor of repealing daylight savings. 

On the other hand, russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have abandoned daylight savings 13 years ago. Though likely not out of consideration for the welfare of their citizens, but rather to avoid overloading an already cumbersome system of government with any additional tasks.

It’s very possible that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hesitation in signing the law for repeal of daylight savings is geopolitically motivated. Or maybe it’s the fact that the petition opposing the law was signed by 25,000 people on the president’s website.

According to legal experts, the president can realistically stall the decision for a fairly long time. And while it remains unsigned, the law won’t be able to take effect. So, come springtime, we might still turn our clocks the usual way. Moreover, the president could redirect the law back to Rada with proposed corrections, which will mark the beginning of another round of parliamentary considerations.

At the end of the day, this law has no effect on the current time change policy. On October 27, at 4 AM EEST, we will have to wind our clocks back one hour, setting them to 3 AM. Of course, there is no need to stay up late — you can do it when you wake up. As for whether the same will happen this upcoming March… only time will tell.