Is the seasonal change of geography clocks justified? Research into whether seasonal time changes are justified

Analysts have counted seven initiatives of ex-President Medvedev, which are being curtailed by the current president. One of them is the abolition of the transfer of clock hands to winter time. The next time reform that affected Russia was carried out in the summer of 2011. By presidential decree, the entire country, having changed its clocks to daylight saving time in the spring, remained in it forever. After the reform, the difference between the time on the clock dials and the astronomical time was two hours. But such a difference, instead of the expected economic effect and beneficial effect on the health of citizens, introduced a number of inconveniences and became a reason for discussion. Practice has shown people's ambiguous perception of the change in the temporary regime that has become habitual. show that many Russians, especially in the eastern regions, consider permanent switching to daylight saving time inappropriate.

Citizens express their dissatisfaction based on personal feelings and impressions. Many people are unhappy with the fact that they spend time at work, leaving home and returning in the dark. The cancellation of the transition to winter time has caused chronic lack of sleep and fatigue. Official science does not provide reliable information about the negative impact of living in summer time on the health of citizens. But, nevertheless, many people recognize such a temporary regime as uncomfortable and advocate moving closer to the statistical average. This includes the President of Russia.

Undoubtedly, adaptation to constant seasonal changes in the time cycle during the transition from summer to winter time negatively affects the population. It is difficult to find at least one person who has not experienced the “charms” of adaptation. Moreover, according to doctors, in the first days after the transition to a new hourly schedule, the number of ambulance calls increases, resistance to stress decreases, and the number of heart attacks increases. At the same time, switching to daylight saving time and back does not provide any special economic effect. But even a two-hour difference from the biological one does not cause optimism.

Precisely because such a reform did not justify itself, in September 2012 a draft of a new law was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, and subsequently forwarded to the government. The abolition of daylight saving time was initiated by the Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation S. Kalashnikov. The bill, as its author notes, is relevant and requires prompt consideration and support. The chief sanitary doctor of Russia, G. Onishchenko, admitted that returning the country to astronomical time would be most natural for the population. He also expressed the opinion that the transition to seasonal time for the sake of the economy and to the detriment of health is inappropriate. Thus, the abolition of daylight saving time is a matter of time and common sense. Considering that not only the comfort, but also the health of citizens depends on the government’s decision, we can only hope for a comprehensive and in-depth study of the problem by statesmen.

The top officials of the state have already expressed their point of view. The President noted that he does not like living like summer in winter. He left the consideration of the bill to And Prime Minister Medvedev, in response to questions from journalists, proposed holding a vote in a number of regions on the feasibility of a new temporary system. He also admitted that switching to daylight saving time is a matter of choice, and if people are in favor of canceling the reform, then so be it.

In the USSR, seasonal switching began to be practiced in 1981. Today, this is done by the EU countries, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Mexico. In total, 78 countries use daylight saving time.

The clock hands are a symbol of the flow of life, sometimes they warn reality, sometimes they lag behind, and sometimes they stop. No matter how pragmatic it sounds, human life is scheduled by the hour: plans, work schedule, studying, eating, walking, sleeping - everything has its own time frame. What happens when the clocks change? Rhythms go astray and people suffer, and for some such changes pass without a trace, although it only seems so.

Winter time switches to the last Sunday in October - minus 1 hour at 3 am, Daylight Saving Time starts on the last Sunday in March - plus 1 hour at 2 am.

The time is changed in order to save electricity and other natural resources, taking into account the earlier going to bed of the population.

As the founders of this theory justify themselves, measures will help the nation significantly preserve natural resources. But senior management is silent about how such a transition affects people’s well-being.

The study of the correspondence between sleep and the daily norm was carried out in ancient times, but then the goal was the exclusive assistance and worship of unearthly power. At the end of the 18th century, humanity began to feel some inconvenience due to different lengths of sunny days in remote regions of the planet.

What do doctors think:

Seasonal, daily rhythms are directly related to the course of internal processes in the body of animals and humans. A strict order of biological processes was developed in the process of evolution, which helped to adapt to the environment.

Sleep consists of several phases, each of which requires completion. As a result of the reduction in time, the morning phase of REM sleep, which helps to remember and assimilate the material of the past day, is interrupted. Thus, a person’s memory deteriorates and non-standard thinking becomes dull.

What do people think:

The day after the “missing hour,” hundreds of dejected residents come to the clinic with health complaints. Existing diseases worsen, blood pressure rises, insomnia sets in, and in the best case, just weakness and slight loss of time.

What does the government think:

The authorities see only positive aspects in the transition to summer and winter time, although they themselves are hostage to the negative influence of such a tradition. All inconveniences are accepted when it comes to getting rich, in short, just 1 hour can be sold for millions. The issue of “resignation of the clock power” has been considered since 1990, and only today some countries have been able to achieve year-round summer time to save the population.

The first to experience difficulties with the transition are night workers, who directly on site have to move an hour forward or back, which is quite difficult.

It will take 2 weeks for the body to completely adjust to the new clock schedule for humans and animals.

Adaptation Tips for the people will be very justified:

• getting up (going to bed) according to the old time. Every day it is worth increasing or decreasing the boundaries by 5-10 minutes until the body gets completely used to the new time;
• compulsory morning breakfast. It is better to eat fresh vegetables or fruits - an ideal morning diet;
• nothing should change in life, even small actions, down to your favorite music and a cheerful bus driver, remain the same.

With the advent of the tradition of changing clocks, the development of the energy and pharmaceutical business is actively gaining momentum, which leads to the chronocide of the population, close to the concept of genocide. The rich profit from the saved energy, and pharmacists from the increased demand for medicines.

The reason for this is the government’s neglect of people’s interests and support for enrichment policies. The ideologists of the creation of the “clock change theory” often do not have accurate knowledge about the normal course of the “wake-sleep” cycle, which disrupts the social rhythms of the entire population.

Conclusion one: everything is under the power of nature, including time. As long as people try to control it, they will be punished by depriving them of the vitality given to them.

Video: Why do the clocks change?

On October 31st we will move the clocks back an hour earlier. We're used to it. But let's think about how useful this is?

How it was
Many publications incorrectly attribute the invention of daylight saving time to the famous English builder and outdoor enthusiast William Willett.

He independently began to think about the possibility of introducing "summer time" in 1905 during a trip before breakfast, seeing London sleeping with the sun already rising, noticing how many of the city's residents were awake for a significant part of the summer day. An avid golfer, he also did not like to end his game at dusk.

In 1907, an article “On the Waste of Daylight” by William Willett appeared in one of the British newspapers with a proposal to move the time forward 20 minutes every Sunday in April (for a total of 80 minutes), and move the hands back in September.

Willett lobbied unsuccessfully for his proposal in Britain until his death from influenza in 1915, and the first nation in Europe to use Willett's idea for the purpose of preserving coal during the war (from 30 April 1916) was Germany and its allies in the First World War .

Universal implementation
Great Britain, most of the Allies, and many European neutral countries soon followed suit; Russia and several other countries the following year, and the United States in 1918. In many countries, posters of the same type were released on this topic, which called for patriotic feelings.

Nowadays
Currently, 76 countries use some form of daylight saving time (of which 10 countries do not use it in all regions), and 128 countries do not.
In the northern hemisphere, summer time is used in the USA, Canada, European countries, and throughout Russia. In the southern hemisphere, summer time is used in Australia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile.

Refusal to change clocks
Japan, China, India, Singapore, as well as the republics of the former USSR: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Turkmenistan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan retained “maternity time”) refused to introduce summer time.

Russia
In Russia, summer time was first introduced by a decree of the Provisional Government on July 1, 1917. However, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated December 22, 1917 (old style) “On moving the clock hands,” on December 27 (old style) of the same year the clock hands were again moved back an hour. Apparently, the clock hands in the USSR were not reset until 1930. In 1930, maternity time was introduced, the clock hands were moved 1 hour ahead relative to standard time.

The transfer of clock hands to summer time was introduced on April 1, 1981 by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, but in relation to maternity time, so that the total shift in summer time in Russia reached 2 hours.

Attempts to reverse the clock change
In 2008, Sergei Mironov introduced a bill to the State Duma to abolish the transition to daylight saving time; the document was accompanied by research results that showed that the transition from one time to another negatively affects the health of Russians.

However, on December 3, 2008, the Duma rejected the bill in the first reading - partly due to the lack of sufficient scientific evidence of harm to health. Similar proposals were submitted to the Duma several times before, for example, in 2003, but were always rejected.
In November 2009, deputy from the United Russia faction Vasily Zakharyashchev again introduced a bill to the State Duma entitled “On the transition of the Russian Federation to standard time.”

The bill was introduced the day after, speaking before the Federal Assembly, Dmitry Medvedev expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the transition to winter and summer time. In his opinion, it is necessary to compare the benefits of this transition and the obvious inconveniences.

About harm and benefit
Research shows that during the transition to a new time, young children and older people experience stress reactions, disturbances in sleep patterns, the activity of the cardiovascular and immune systems, and metabolic processes.

After switching to daylight saving time, the number of emergency calls for exacerbations of cardiovascular diseases increases by 7%. Turning the switch deprives people of the morning phases of sleep, leads to chronic lack of sleep and, as a result, to a general increase in mortality. In 2000, a number of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian doctors proposed abandoning the practice of switching to daylight saving time.

In addition, cardiology data indicate special problems during this period for hypertensive patients. People who take medications precisely on time are also opponents of switching the needles. For example, patients with diabetes.

Many scientists believe that changing time is contrary to nature. This procedure does not take place without consequences. According to American researchers, in the first time after the clock hands are changed, the number of deaths from accidents in the United States increases by 6%, and injuries with loss of ability to work - by 7%.

Physiologists assess the transition to daylight saving time as an environmental shock. They believe that normal sleep can only occur when it coincides with local standard time, otherwise it is disrupted.

For residents of Ukraine, for example, standard (winter) time practically coincides with real local time (there are slight deviations in the extreme east and west of the country). The conclusion suggests itself - for Ukrainians it is better not to introduce summer time.

Doctors from the Interregional Association "Siberian Agreement" examined the consequences of the spring shift in nineteen subjects - in the Krasnoyarsk, Altai territories, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Omsk regions, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports.

It turned out that in the first five days after the “change of clocks,” ambulance calls increase by 12%, suicides increase by 66%, and 75% more people die from heart attacks. The number of accidents increases by about a third. And only by the end of the third week, after moving the hands an hour earlier, the indicators return to the original ones.

In addition, arrow manipulation increases overall mortality by 74 thousand people per year, which is twice as many as the number of deaths in car accidents.

Saving
Energy savings are the main argument of supporters of introducing daylight saving time. But this argument was relevant several decades ago, when people's private lives were less connected with electricity than their work activities. Today, energy workers do not see much difference in energy consumption in summer and winter.

Due to the fact that in the spring the hands of the clocks running according to standard time are moved forward an hour, and in the fall they are set back, the country as a whole saves 1% of electricity - several billion kilowatt-hours. This became known as a result of research conducted in the 1970s.

However, data collected over the past several years shows that pharmacists benefit most from changing clocks. During this period, a peak in sales of medicines was recorded in Russia.

Lyrics
This morning, my baby woke up at 8:30 am as usual. This is probably the only thing I couldn’t get used to – my biological alarm clock goes off at 9:00. This is a habit that has already taken root in recent years.

Maybe I'm pushing myself, and we'll get used to it, like we got used to everything that happened before. But sometimes you just want to live and not think that at least in the matter of time someone is bothering you.

Alternative view
Everything would be fine, but there is one BUT - an alternative view of existing events. I quote an excerpt from the book “Choice” by Viktor Suvorov (Rezun):

- It's simple. Is it necessary to march in a parade at war, in boxes of two hundred people? In war, is it necessary to tear your legs above the waist, is it necessary not to bend your knees and pull up your toes? Do you need to stick your chest out like a wheel and lift your chin higher than your nose? Why are we doing all this nonsense? And the point is to force thousands of people to act simultaneously and monotonously, obeying orders rather than common sense.
- You can't argue with that.
- That's all. It is necessary to transfer such exercises to hundreds of millions of people.
- Force civilians to march in formation?
- Of course not. I'm talking about content, not form. The main thing is that the exercises are stupid and that hundreds of millions of people do it at the same time. We need to force them to do stupid things regularly... You can force the entire population of the Earth to move the clock hands twice every year.
- How to motivate this?
- Announce that this way energy is saved.
- But she doesn’t save money?
- Of course not.
-... Do you think that there will be no benefit from moving the arrows?
- There will be harm. Great harm.
- And no one will object?
- The crowd is not able to think. The crowd will take this for granted and will create problems for themselves. As soon as we introduce a dozen of these stupidest exercises for the Earth's population, and everyone submits meekly, we will own the world.

What do you think?

To find out how justified the seasonal translation of the hands is, it is necessary to answer the question of what time we live in, or rather, how exactly we determine the daily time. From time immemorial, humanity lived according to “solar time”: noon always occurred at the moment when the Sun was at its zenith. Thus, the formal middle of the day always coincided with the brightest time of day. From the point of view of each individual person, this method of counting time is optimal, because the biological clock of any living organism is guided, first of all, by the degree of illumination. And no matter what the “owls” and “larks” say to themselves, we all belong to the diurnal species Homo sapiens. Therefore, it is most natural for us to get up at dawn (or a little earlier) and go to bed at sunset (or a little later), being most active during daylight hours. A significant disadvantage of solar time is the fact that for each settlement located to the west or east it is arbitrary selected point, its own time turns out to be correct. Until the 19th century. This circumstance did not create any particular problems, but as railways and communication technologies developed, solar time became more and more inconvenient. The trains moved so fast that it became very difficult for them to draw up accurate schedules - after all, as they moved along the earth's meridians, the difference between the clock readings at the starting point and local time gradually increased. Things weren't going well for telegraph operators when they had to transmit a message exactly on time: for each locality they had to calculate their own time correction.

To solve the problem of synchronization, European countries began to introduce a single time on their territory, usually tied to the solar time of the capital. In the large and conservative Russian Empire it was used only on railways and telegraph lines. Trains and telegrams ran according to St. Petersburg time, but each city lived according to the time of its own meridian. In the USA and Canada the situation was even stranger. Not only each state had its own time, but also most of the railway companies whose lines crossed the continent from ocean to ocean. Drivers and passengers had to constantly rack their brains, linking the train time with the uniform state time and station clocks. One can imagine the confusion that ensued if two railway lines intersected in one place.