Three assumptions at the time of conversion in Check

On Sunday when the summer time starts, many of the “longer” days. The extra daylight in the evening hours but must be in the Morning abgeknapst – it is later light.

With the summer time, which exists in Germany since 1980, however, could soon be closing. The EU Parliament voted on Tuesday to abolish the time change. It is in favour, the watch and 2021, for the last Time. Arguments for or against, there are many, for a permanent summer or winter time. What are the votes?

1. Statement: The previous Back and Forth is detrimental to the health, because our inner clock device every Time in a mess.

Rating: Maybe right

The Background: There is evidence that our inner clock, especially in the spring, not so easy to adapt. The health insurance company DAK, for example, has found in a long-term observation, that in the first three days after the time change 25 percent more patients came with heart complaints to the hospital than the average.

However, the health insurance companies-researchers compared the number of hospital admissions in the first three workdays after the time change (i.e., Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) with the hospital admissions over the year as a whole. This weakens the results because Mondays already significantly more people suffer a heart attack than on other days of the week. Studies from Sweden, Croatia and the United States support the Thesis that after the time change in the spring, the risk of heart attack increases a little (read more here).

In a Forsa-survey on behalf of the DAK (2018) in addition, one in four, that he ever had problems with the time change – most of the reported sleep and sleep disorders. The other way around this means, however, that three out of four respondents are not able to recall health problems due to the time change.

2. Claim: A permanent summer time would hit students particularly hard.

Rating: Right

The Background: In the case of a conversion to permanent summer time in the Winter in the morning a hour later light. People, however, need the blue light of the solar radiation, in order to be awake. It is the “Main timer” for the internal clock, and determines the sleep-Wake rhythm.

The German society for sleep research and sleep medicine recommends for this reason, for a retention of the normal time – that is, against a permanent summer time. The Munich chronotype, Till Roenneberg, biologists, according to a permanent summer would affect the time a Teenager is actually particularly hard.

Puberty is adjusted to the inner clock and makes many Teenagers to long-sleepers. Already, the school start at eight o’clock in the morning is comparable to a start of work at four o’clock in adults, says Roenneberg in a Podcast from the Institute for Medical psychology at the LMU. The time change is exacerbating this Problem. The consequences of concentration and loss of power.

Also the German teacher’s Association is holding a permanent switch to summer time would be irresponsible. Such a scheme would lead, according to a statement from the Association’s Chairman Heinz-Peter Meidinger, “the fact that over ten million students in Germany would take two months longer in total darkness, your morning journey to school, what would not drive least of all, the accident frequency in the height”.

3. Claim: A permanent winter time comes the natural conditions.

Evaluation: Approved with restrictions

The Background: The most adapted to the nature of our day, when the sun is at 12 o’clock noon, its Zenith reached would be the equivalent of the “sun time”. For example, it is in the Winter in Görlitz, the easternmost corner of Germany. Already in Hamburg or Dortmund sun and time do not match but, because they are significantly further to the West. We consider large parts of Europe, is the matter even more complicated.

Based on the time zones are. For you the Globe, starting from the zero Meridian in Greenwich, London is divided in 24 zones, with a width of 15 degrees of longitude theoretically. From one of these zones to the next is the time an hour difference in each case. The Problem: In reality, political borders and geographical circumstances, distort the outline of the time zones.

So about the same time of the Spanish Atlantic coast to the Eastern Polish border. The result is that the sun reaches in Spain, the highest level only at 13 o’clock, in Poland, been at about 11 am. The “natural” conditions, the long-lasting winter time is so only in a small part of the continent, in the East, the summer time would fit even better to the position of the sun. In the West, however, this would exacerbate the discrepancy in comparison to permanent winter time.