The change from summer to winter time will take place on the night of Saturday to Sunday. on 27 October, the hands of the clocks will move back from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. We will therefore sleep one hour longer. We will return to daylight saving time in March next year. However, the time change may cause discomfort for many people, e.g. people with diabetes need to adjust the time of their insulin intake the day before.

It may seem that sleeping an hour longer should make us feel more rested, but the change may cause us to feel excessively sleepy, have a lack of appetite and feel worse over the next few days. This is because the time change disrupts a person' s biological clock. Changing the time of getting up, eating meals - all this affects internal homeostasis, as well as the secretion of the hormones cortisol and melatonin.

However, Danish researchers have gone one step further and believe that the time change may also have an impact on depression, with 11 per cent more cases in November. In Finland, on the other hand, researchers examined the impact of the time change on the risk of heart attacks , and their findings are also worrying, as the number of heart attacks and strokes increased during periods when the time change from summer to winter time and vice versa.

Why do we change from summer to winter time and vice versa?

The main arguments in favour of the time change are to save energy, to be able to be active outdoors despite the late hour, which is good for health, and to reduce road accidents as drivers are less likely to drive in the dark. However, opponents of the time change believe that the energy savings are illusory, because in summer we get up earlier and switch on the light, moreover, any gains in energy savings are offset by the effort of coordinating the time change, rearranging equipment, timetables, etc., e.g. by changing the time trains will be forced to stop for an hour. In winter time, a difference of one hour is not enough to cancel out the effect of the lack of sunshine both in the morning and in the afternoon

However, the time change currently has more opponents than supporters, but despite public pressure throughout the European Union, the abandonment of the seasonal time change will not happen for the next few years.