WINTER TIME CHANGE. On the night of this Saturday October 29 to Sunday October 30, 2022, France switches to winter time. Time, clockwise, sleep… How does the time change work?
At 3 a.m. Sunday, October 30, 2022, the hands will jump directly back one hour, taking us back to 2 a.m. Against the background of the European project to abolish the annual double time change (still in the works), the transition to winter time is taking place this time, as always on the last Sunday of October. By going back an hour, we artificially gain an hour of sleep. But by setting our clocks back an hour, we also lose, at the same time, an hour of natural light at the end of the day. A simple mnemonic device makes it possible to remember without fail the mechanism of the time change: in October, the hands go BACK, and in March, during the change of summer time, they move forward!
The time change was implemented in a sustainable way in France in 1976, in a context of economic crisis, in order to save electricity, in particular by limiting the use of artificial lighting. In 1980, the seasonal double time change was harmonized within the European Union, and the transition to winter and summer time has taken place on the same dates in all Member States since 1998.