ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF CHANGING THE CLOCK TWICE A YEAR?

Why is this important?

 In March 2019, the European Parliament spoke the magic words:

"We want a legal time without changes,
with respect for our health and our environment."

The EU proposal to abolish the clock changes between Standard Time (ST) and Daylight Saving Time (DST) was adopted. In order for the proposal to enter into force, the member states, as represented by their Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council ministers, must ratify the proposal and state in which time zone they wish to remain permanently. Yet our governments seem incapable of making this simple decision!

What is a healthy time system? Natural standard time! (2) Where 12:00 o’clock corresponds to noon (solar zenith) at the meridian of each timezone. (3) 

We are biologically synchronized with Earth’s natural orbit. The annual clock changes that result in earlier clock times and thus earlier social schedules negatively affect our biological rhythm (circadian rhythm ) (4,5), which has significant health repercussions. Documented effects include loss of sleep, decreased attention and alertness, increased metabolic and cardiovascular issues, mood disorders, and even a shortened lifespan. (6,7,8,9,10)

Here you see the geographical time zones that each country should be aligned with in order to enjoy natural time. Together with the international Expert Lab of the Time Use Initiative (11) we, the International Alliance for Natural Time (IANT) have made a proposal (12) on how to easily change back to the optimal time zone for each European country.

This map shows the current time zones that we call ‘wintertime’ or ST. As you can see, several countries are using the wrong time zone! Note: using a time zone to your east is more harmful to health and environment than a time zone to your west.

During the 7 months of ‘summertime’ or DST the countries are actually using the time zones you see here. This means that some countries are severely misaligned, some regions even up to three hours away from their natural time zone!

It is estimated that the annual time zone changes in Europe can cost between 1% and 2% of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP), which corresponds to almost 300 billion euros. (13) These costs are mainly linked to health problems, productivity losses and other economic effects. (14,15,16,17,18) Let us set other priorities with this money and put an end to the annual changes of time zone.

With this petition we want to urge our ministers to finally take the decision to adopt each country’s geographical time zone (natural standard time) and put an end to the annual changes of time. A growing body of scientific evidence shows this is essential for health, safety, education, work, economy, environment, and human rights.

On behalf of the International Alliance for Natural Time and Time Use Initiative:

Diego (Argentina), Ben (Australia), Ann (België), Anja (Deutschland), Birgitte (Danmark), Ariadna (España), Maryvonne (France), Stefano (Great Britain), Bolat (Қазақстан), Ticia (Nederland), Trond (Norge), Joao (Portugal), Janine (Schweiz), Susanne (Sverige), Jay (USA)

References:

1. Time zone - Wikipedia
2. Standard time - Wikipedia
3. Coordinated Universal Time - Wikipedia (UTC)
4. Circadian rhythm - Wikipedia
5. Circadian Rythms, National Institute of
   General Medical Sciences, NIH
6. 7 things to know about Daylight Saving Time 
7. Why daylight saving time is unhealthy - a neurologist explains 
8. The dark side of daylight saving time 
9. Daylight saving time bad for health 
10. Medical experts argue against daylight saving time 
11. Time Use Initiative, Barcelona
12. Proposal on implementing permanent time zones in the EU
    Read the full document in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, or Portuguese. More references under section 5.2 in the document.
13. Why Sleep Matters—The Economic Costs of Insufficient Sleep: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis - PMC 
14. Countries changing clock daylight savings 
15. Why are the clocks changing in Europe and when does it happen
16. What's the real cost of changing the clocks (USA)
17. The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK
18. Sleep experts call for UK to abolish twice-yearly clock changes