Daylight savings: Israel’s clocks ‘fall back’ one hour

Israelis are gaining an extra hour of sleep as daylight savings rolls in early Sunday morning.

As always, the clock rolls back an hour starting at 2:00 a.m. Israel time, turning it into 1:00 a.m.

This will be reversed on Friday, March 25, 2022, when the clock “springs ahead” one hour.

Daylight savings is a practice carried out by many nations worldwide, particularly those in the West. However, its practice is not uniform everywhere, with some countries cycling through it differently.

In addition, the practice is not universally carried out within individual countries, with parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia not taking part. 

Overall, the practice is only used by a minority of the world today, and tends to especially be absent near the equator. This is due to the fact that daylight is more consistent there, and as such there is less of a need to alter the clocks. 

Subsequently, a majority of nations using daylight savings time are in the northern hemisphere, with only a few countries south of the equator taking part as well.

The practice also has many detractors. In Israel, many oppose going back to “winter time,” referring to when the clock “falls back.” 

As noted by Ynet, some suggest that shorter evenings mean less daylight, meaning more drivers navigating the roads in darkness and subsequently leading to more traffic accidents. 

Last Thursday, Israel’s Industrialist Association chair told KAN that staying on “summer time” all-year-round could save the nation millions of shekels.

There are several countries worldwide that have also abandoned the practice as a whole, such as Russia, China and Iceland. 

As noted in a peer-reviewed study published in August in Chronobiology International by the University of Seville’s José María Martín-Olalla, the effects of daylight savings can be seen in the daily rhythms of labor and sleep.

He compared the people of Germany, which had not observed daylight savings between 1945 and 1980, with the United Kingdom, which has observed it since 1918.

He concluded that, as a result of the long-standing observance of DST in the UK, Britons begin their daily activities exactly as the sun rises in the winter. In comparison, Germans, who did not observe DST for 30 years in the 20th century, begin their day earlier. He noted that increased activity on early winter mornings poses increased risks and is physiologically disadvantageous.

But as Israel is further to the South and the daylight hours are not the same as in Europe, it is unclear if this would have similar effects. Indeed, daylight will actually start later than is typical.

Further, “summer time” remained in place for an especially long period in 2021.

The last time Daylight Savings Time remained in place for so long was during the Independence War in 1948, during which a sunrise was marked at 7:15 a.m.