Back and forth, back, the time is not clear

It seems, turning clock hands is becoming a fashion trend. For more than twenty years, we have enjoyed this to our heart's content. They turned the clock forward an hour, then back an hour. And pundits, foaming at the mouth, convinced the people that this was even good for health. Then something clicked, a breeze blew through the window in the spring, and the opinion of pundits changed to the exact opposite. - What harm! – wailed all and sundry. - Nature, no matter how you rearrange the arrows, you can not deceive. And the electricity savings are negligible.

According to rough estimates, the transition to summer and winter time saves about 4.4 billion kWh annually, or 0.1-0.3% of our electricity consumption. This is 13.2 billion rubles. If this amount is divided by the number of Russians, it will be less than 8 rubles for each. Pennies! And some experts are generally of the opinion that due to the short daylight hours in Russia, moving the clock hands does not save anything at all. That is, one way or another, you still have to turn on the light both in the morning and in the evening. And in most enterprises, offices and shops, lighting is on all day.

Furthermore, The Research Institute of Occupational Medicine of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences claims that due to the transfer of hours, labor productivity is falling. While a person gets used to the new time, he does not get enough sleep, and, accordingly, one cannot expect labor feats from him. In addition, during the day, a person experiences two surges of strength - from 10 to 12 hours and from 16 to 18 hours of local solar (zone) time. How they were distributed over winter and summer time, I think, is easy to calculate. In general, the health of citizens turned out to be more expensive than momentary benefits.
The President promised to deal with our time and the notorious translation of clocks. True, he immediately mentioned that here it is necessary to calculate everything properly and weigh all the pros and cons. Newspapers immediately began to weigh these pros and cons. 2011 marked a historic decision. On February 8 last year, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered to switch the clock to daylight saving time and stay there. Which was done. In autumn, no one set the clock back an hour.

Indeed, something suggested that advisers to our powers that be, to put it mildly, did not take into account all the nuances. First of all, the very first time we moved the hands of the clock forward. That is, closer to the zone, and hence to the natural time in Russia, after all, winter time.
It would be more logical to refuse, therefore, precisely from the innovation, that is, from summer time. But the people propose, and the government disposes. The result is that we will now live according to daylight saving time. What follows from this? Personally, I have a three-year-old son. Have you tried waking up your child when it's pitch dark outside? And let the clock be half past eight in the morning, according to hourly time - half past six! That same morning. Yes, gentlemen, having remained on summer time, we were ahead of our natural, zone time by exactly two hours. The sun is deeply indifferent to what our clock shows there, its sunrise and sunset do not depend on the decision of the rulers and are made in accordance not with our desire, but with the rotation of the planet Earth.

Come on, a child, albeit with tears, can still be taken to kindergarten in impenetrable darkness. And what about the drivers? Pedestrian zebras, even in the capital, are not all covered. What can we say about small towns! In the morning, all because of the same summer time, pedestrians in dark clothes merge with their surroundings. And the number of accidents in which horseless citizens suffer has increased dramatically this autumn and winter. The darkest months of November and December in the vastness of our vast Russia have really become darker nowhere. And darkness, as you know, is the best friend of decadent moods and depressions.

Nevertheless, one must get used to the fact that from the beginning of November to the end of March it will get light in the morning and darken in the evening an hour later.

Pros:
Supporters of abandoning winter time say that for Russia late twilight provides more benefits than early dawn. It is better for a person to have an extra hour of light after the end of the working day than before it begins. In addition, various hooligans prefer darkness. But more crimes are still committed at night and in the evening, and not in the early morning.

Five Russian regions have benefited from the abandonment of winter time(the ones where standard time has become an hour closer to Moscow) - Chukotka, Kamchatka, Kemerovo region, Udmurtia and Samara region. Due to the change in time zone, they lost 180 hours of daylight hours, fixing summer time partially compensates for this loss.

Another plus is that summer time is a kind of antidepressant.. Scientists say that the earlier we wake up relative to sunrise, the less prone to depression. It is not for nothing that the people say: "Who gets up early - God gives him."

Refusal of winter time in Russia will make flights from November to March more convenient to the west. Let's say we can fly to Paris or Brussels at the same time that we left Moscow. And when flying to Warsaw from Moscow or to Helsinki from St. Petersburg, the local time of arrival will be almost an hour less than the local time of departure. The day is automatically extended by an hour or even two. At the same time, the road back to Russia will be "longer" for an hour. Therefore, night flights will become more popular: it is more convenient when the change of time zones "eats" the night, not the day. The latter circumstance for many can become, however, a huge minus.

Minuses:
From November to March, tourists and businessmen need to carefully monitor the time in other countries. the time difference with the Baltics, Finland, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria will grow to two hours, with the UK, Ireland and Portugal - up to four, and with most of continental Europe - up to three hours.
But who is fit to shout "guard" is sports fans. They will inevitably have to become night owls. We were out of sync with Europe and the USA for half a year. That is, the Champions League matches until March will begin not at 22.45, but at 23.45 Moscow time.

Increased by an hour time difference with the West can be felt by the stock markets. Usually the trading session of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) ends at 18.45 Moscow time, and the American exchange opens in Moscow at 17.30. Traditionally, during the last hour and 15 minutes, trading is activated: traders learn about the trends of the US market and make deals based on these data. But now the North American exchanges will open Moscow time at 18.30, then simultaneous trading will only be possible for 15 minutes and activity will fall.

As for the majority of Russian regions, they have, unlike Kamchatka and Chukotka, daylight hours, on the contrary, will be stolen. From November to March, they will feel an acute shortage of daylight hours. There are not enough hours of light.

Doctors and teachers speak their weighty word. Teachers generally consider the abandonment of winter time to be a disaster for their students. Just because the children are catastrophically not getting enough sleep and getting up after dark. Doctors are of approximately the same opinion and even write tearful letters to newspapers asking them to return winter time and, conversely, to abandon summer time.

Scientists' opinions:
There is no agreement among scholars. Some consider the rejection of winter time good, others bad. Supporters of summer time rest on the fact that if it was previously believed that the middle of the day should be at noon, then this does not suit modern man. The rhythm of life in the metropolis simply does not allow you to live by the sundial. And summer time is optimal for us. Yes, schoolchildren will leave home at dusk, but return from school before dawn. And they still have time to walk.

« Winter time, which was canceled in Russia, is more convenient for us: it is closer to human biorhythms,”- answer their opponents. It would be better to cancel the transition to daylight saving time. Sergey Smirnov, vice-president of the Astronomical and Geodetic Association of the Russian Federation, says that fixing daylight saving time will force St. Petersburg to live in the Ural time zone, and not in the Pulkovo meridian time, which is natural for the region.
For six months - From November to March - we will get up not even at dawn, but in the very darkness. This time in the East is considered the most difficult. True, in the summer we will no longer feel this: early dawns will inevitably force our biorhythms to wake us up at dawn. By the way, Sergei Smirnov cites Finland as an example, which does not switch to daylight saving time at all. For the northern latitudes, this is inappropriate - this is what our northern neighbor thinks.

One way or another, but the voice of football fans and opponents of summer time was suddenly heard by one of the presidential candidates in Russia, Vladimir Putin. At a recent meeting with football fans, after listening carefully to complaints about the midnight vigils, he promised to think about this problem. Perhaps the current president of Russia did not take into account something, or maybe they just hurried to salute and tried to fulfill the president's wishes as soon as possible. The wind had not yet blown, and the officials had already put their noses up and reported on the implementation.

So the question of how long we should live is not removed from the agenda. The change of power in the Kremlin can again move the hands of our clock. After all, it's easier than a piece of cake - as soon as the president wants to, and we will live at least in summer, even in autumn. Or maybe it's still better to live by sundial, in accordance with standard time? Scientists men, ay! Have your say.

Sandford Fleming (1827−1915) put an end to the confusion over time by proposing that the time zone system be based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

In order not to enter local time for each degree of longitude, the Earth's surface is conventionally divided into 24 time zones. There are countries and areas (Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, etc.) in which the local time differs from the standard zone by an additional 30 or even 45 minutes. A map of time zones can be studied in detail on the World Time Zone website.

Countries marked in blue are using daylight saving time. Orange - countries that have canceled this transition; in red - countries that have never introduced it

In order 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, mankind lived according to "solar time": noon always fell at the moment when the Sun was at its zenith. Thus, the formal middle of the day always coincided with the lightest time of the 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 “owls” and “larks” say about themselves, we all belong to the species Homo sapiens leading a daily lifestyle. 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), showing the greatest activity during daylight hours.

A significant drawback of solar time is the fact that for each settlement located to the west or east of an arbitrarily chosen point, its own time turns out to be correct. Up until the 19th century. this did not pose much of a problem, but as railroads 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, in the process of moving along the earth's meridians, the difference between the clock readings at the starting point and local time gradually increased. Telegraph operators did not fare well when they needed to transmit a message exactly on time: for each settlement, they had to calculate their own time correction.

To solve the problem of synchronization, European countries began to introduce a common 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 Petersburg time, but each city lived according to the time of its own meridian. In the US and Canada, the situation was even stranger. Not only did each state have its own time, but so did most of the railroad companies whose lines crossed the continent from ocean to ocean. Engineers and passengers had to constantly rack their brains, linking the time of the train with the common time of the state and the indications of the station clock. One can imagine the confusion that followed when two railway lines intersected at the same place.

One for all

A way out was found by a Canadian communications engineer named Sandforf Flemming, who had worked on the railroad for many years. He proposed introducing Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and dividing the globe into 24 sectors of 15 degrees each, setting each of them to its own common time. This solution made it possible to significantly simplify the calculation of time corrections: the difference between the two time zones always remained a multiple of a whole hour. At the same time, the deviation from natural solar time should not exceed 30 minutes. The United States accepted the idea in 1883, and a year later, an agreement on time zones was signed by 26 more states. It was decided that the boundaries of the belts should not necessarily run strictly along the meridians - for the sake of convenience, they are consistent with state and administrative boundaries. Therefore, in some regions living according to standard time, the deviation from solar time can reach an hour or more. Today, most of the world lives according to standard time - simply because it is convenient.

The next step was the idea of ​​summer and winter time. It was first expressed by the London contractor William Willett in the article "The Waste of Daylight", published in 1907. Willett suggested moving the time forward 20 minutes every Sunday in April, and then win back the difference in September, and argued that this would allow the country to reduce lighting costs. He reasoned as follows: it so happened that in the summer, city residents get up and go to work when it is already dawn, and go to bed after dark, because of which they have to spend extra money on lighting their homes at night. Why not move the hands forward a little in the summer so that the rise time moves closer to dawn? Willett's idea was implemented by the British government in 1916. Quite quickly, the British came up with a scheme with a one-time translation of the hands for one hour. After the end of the First World War, their experience began to gradually be adopted by other states, which saw a good opportunity to save money in the seasonal translation of the arrows.

Russian way

Meanwhile, our country, as usual, followed its own unique path. Before the revolution, all of Russia lived according to solar time - simply because the possible transition to the belt system was perceived by the tsarist government as "shaking the foundations" and "trampling on the holy identity." In 1918, the Soviet government introduced standard time in the country, highlighting 11 time zones on the territory of the USSR. In 1931, a decree was issued, moving the time forward 1 hour relative to the zone time - in order to save electricity. In 1981, in addition to the "mortem time", the summer translation of the hands was also set for another 1 hour ahead. In 1991, maternity time was abolished throughout the territory of the Union, but a few months later it was restored along with the seasonal switchover. This order continues to this day. Given that the average person gets up at 7 am and goes to bed at 11 pm, it may seem quite reasonable. However, the reality is somewhat more complicated than it looks at first glance.

Indeed, the summer switchover reduces the direct costs of lighting, but no one really knows how much exactly. In summer, electricity consumption is in any case less than in winter, primarily because much less energy is spent on heating. Therefore, it is very difficult to assess the economic effect of summer time. According to rough estimates made by RAO UES, the switchover saves about 4.4 billion kilowatt-hours annually. In fact, this figure is very small - for each inhabitant it turns out 26 kWh, or 3 W per hour - less than the permissible error in measuring the power of an incandescent lamp. And in terms of money, it turns out that each of us saves no more than 2 rubles on lighting. per month.

Meanwhile, the transfer of arrows in itself is associated with very significant expenses. Take at least passenger trains, which once a year have to stand on the stage for an extra hour to arrive at their destination exactly on schedule. This hour is wasted by both passengers and the railway. In connection with the violent violation of the established biological rhythm, some people, after the transfer of time, worsen their sleep and decrease their working capacity. All this leads to significant losses, which should more than cover the direct savings on consecration. In general, from a medical point of view, summer time is an absolute evil. Within a few days after switching the arrows, doctors note a significant increase in the number of heart attacks, strokes, suicides and various accidents, which means that we have to pay for the very dubious savings in electricity with human lives.

Interestingly, the practice of switching arrows is not at all as common as it is commonly believed - summer time exists in only 29% of the world's countries. It was abandoned by almost all the states that emerged on the site of the former USSR (including all the Baltic countries), as well as such industrial giants as Japan and China. Apparently, we should do the same a long time ago. Another thing is that an extra daylight hour in the evening should play a very positive role in itself, because it leads to a more complete coverage of daylight hours, which means it brings us closer to a more natural biological rhythm. Therefore, the most optimal solution seems to be a return to the standard time, which would be one hour ahead of the standard time - both in summer and in winter, without any translation of the hands.

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

Citizens express their dissatisfaction based on personal feelings and impressions. Many people are not happy with the fact that they spend at work and leave home and return in the dark. The cancellation of the transition to winter time has caused chronic sleep deprivation and fatigue. Official science does not voice reliable information about the negative impact of daylight saving time on the health of citizens. But, nevertheless, many people recognize such a temporary regime as uncomfortable and advocate approaching the average. The President of Russia is among them.

Undoubtedly, adaptation to constant seasonal changes in the time cycle at the moments of 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, stress resistance decreases, and the number of heart attacks increases. At the same time, the transition to daylight saving time and vice versa does not give a special economic effect. But even a two-hour difference with the biological one does not cause optimism.

Precisely because such a reform of the time 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 redirected to the government. The cancellation of daylight saving time was initiated by S.Kalashnikov, Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The bill, as noted by its author, is relevant and requires prompt consideration and support. The chief sanitary doctor of Russia G. Onishchenko admitted that the return of the country to astronomical time would be the 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 comfort, but also the health of citizens depends on the decision of the government, it remains to hope for a comprehensive and in-depth study of the problem by statesmen.

The first persons of the state have already expressed their point of view. The President noted that he does not like to live like summer in winter. He left the consideration of the bill in A. Prime Minister Medvedev, in response to journalists' questions, suggested holding a vote in a number of regions on the advisability of a new temporary system. He also acknowledged that daylight saving time is a matter of choice, and if people are in favor of abolishing the reform, then so be it.

In the USSR, seasonal switching began to be practiced in 1981. To date, this is carried out by the countries of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Mexico. In total, 78 states use daylight saving time.

On October 31, we will again move the clock hands one hour earlier. We are used to it. But let's think about how useful it is?

How it was
Many publications incorrectly attribute the invention of DST to the famous English builder and outdoor enthusiast William Willet.

He himself thought 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 city dwellers wake up a significant part of the summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked finishing his game at dusk.

In 1907, an article “On Wasting 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 (80 minutes in total), and to reverse the translation of the hands in September.

Willet unsuccessfully lobbied for his proposal in Britain until his death from influenza in 1915, and the first nation in Europe to use Willet's idea to conserve coal during a war (since April 30, 1916) was Germany and its allies in World War I .

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

Nowadays
Currently, 76 countries use DST in one form or another (of which 10 countries do not use it in all regions), and 128 countries do not.
In the northern hemisphere, daylight saving 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 refused to introduce summer time: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Turkmenistan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan retained "maternity time").

Russia
In Russia, summer time was first introduced by a decree of the Provisional Government dated July 1, 1917. However, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of December 22, 1917 (old style) "On the translation of the clock", 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 translated until 1930. In 1930, daylight savings time was introduced, the clock hands were moved 1 hour ahead of standard time.

The transfer of clock hands to daylight saving time was introduced from April 1, 1981 by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, but already relative to the daylight saving time, so that the general shift of summer time in Russia reached 2 hours.

Attempts to cancel the clock change
In 2008, Sergei Mironov introduced a bill to the State Duma to abolish the transition to summer time, the document was accompanied by the results of studies 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 on 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 they were always rejected.
In November 2009, Vasily Zakharyashchev, a deputy from the United Russia faction, again submitted a bill to the State Duma called "On the transition of the Russian Federation to standard time."

The bill was introduced the day after Dmitry Medvedev, speaking before the Federal Assembly, 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
Studies show that during the transition to a new time, young children and the elderly experience stress reactions, sleep disturbances, the activity of the cardiovascular and immune systems, and metabolic processes.

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

In addition, cardiology data indicate special problems during this period in hypertensive patients. Opponents of the translation of the arrows are also people who take medication exactly on time. For example, patients with diabetes.

Many scientists believe that changing time is contrary to nature. This procedure does not pass without consequences. According to American researchers, the number of deaths from accidents in the United States increases by 6% in the first time after the clock is turned, and lost-time injuries by 7%.

Physiologists evaluate 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 disturbed.

For residents of Ukraine, for example, standard (winter) time practically coincides with the present 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 Siberian Agreement Interregional Association investigated the consequences of the spring shift of the arrows 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 “clock change”, ambulance calls increase by 12%, suicides grow by 66%, 75% more die from heart attacks. The number of accidents increases by about a third. And only by the end of the third week after the arrows shifted an hour earlier, the indicators return to their original values.

In addition, the manipulation of arrows increases the overall death rate by 74 thousand people a year, which is twice as many as the number of deaths in car accidents.

Saving
Saving electricity is the main argument of supporters of introducing summer time. But this argument was relevant a few decades ago, when people's private lives were less connected to electricity than their work activities. Today, power engineers do not see much difference in energy consumption in summer and winter.

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

However, the data collected over the past few years show that pharmacists benefit most from the clock change. During this period, a peak in sales of medicines was recorded in Russia.

Lyrics
This morning, my baby, as usual, woke up at 8-30 in the morning. This is probably the only thing I could not get used to - my biological alarm clock gives a voice at 9-00. This is a habit that has already taken root in recent years.

Maybe I am winding myself up, and we will get used to it, as we are used to everything that was before. But sometimes you just want to live and not think that at least in the matter of time someone is annoying 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 of Viktor Suvorov (Rezun) "Choice":

- It's simple. Is it necessary to go to war in full dress, in boxes of two hundred people? Is it necessary in war to tear your legs above the waist, is it necessary not to bend your knees and pull your socks off? Do I need to stick out my chest with a wheel and lift my chin above the nose? Why are we doing all this nonsense? And the point is to force thousands of people to act simultaneously and uniformly, obeying orders, and not common sense.
- You can't argue with that.
- That's all. It is necessary to transfer such exercises to hundreds of millions of people.
"Forcing civilians to walk in marching order?"
- 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 act at the same time. It is necessary to force them to regularly commit stupid things... You can force the entire population of the Earth to turn the clock twice every year.
- And what motivates it?
- Announce that energy is saved in this way.
- But it does not save?
- Of course not.
-... Do you think that there will be no benefit from the translation of the arrows?
- There will be harm. Big harm.
- And no one will object?
- The crowd is incapable of thinking. The crowd will take it for granted and will create problems for itself. As soon as we introduce a dozen of these stupid exercises for the population of the Earth, and everyone meekly obeys, we will own the world.

What do you think?

On the eve of the spring transfer of arrows, AiF decided to find out whether it is worth eliminating “winter” and “summer” time in Ukraine as well.

A light bulb is not a rival to the sun

In the last century, the purpose of changing clocks was economic gain. But, according to expert of the International Center for Consumer Expertise and Advanced Research Alexander Zholud, this has been out of date for a long time. Indeed, now the cost of electricity for lighting is negligible, the main part of the electricity is “eaten up” by computer equipment and household appliances, the operation of which does not depend on the time of day. And in the industrial production of electricity around the clock ensures the functioning of powerful units. So there are no savings in factories. But the tension in the days of moving the hands of the clock in some areas of activity makes itself felt. Transport workers especially feel it. Railway workers and aviators suffer the most - for them, the slightest inconsistency in time can turn into tragedies with considerable human casualties. The expert is sure that we also need to abandon the so-called seasonal time. After all, the West took this step even earlier than Russia.

Head of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center Mykola Kulbida I am also sure that the benefit from the translation of the clock, if any, is scanty. More problems. This is the poor health of people, and the failure of the working rhythm. By the way, in the work of such a serious department as the Hydrometeorological Center, there are also inconsistencies on the days of the clock change. Forecasters' observations are tied to international coordinated time, and "an hour ago" or "an hour ahead" requires a certain "adjustment". According to Nikolai Ivanovich, winter time is closest to the biologically natural time of Ukrainians. It makes sense to leave it.

The rhythm goes astray

Scientists about the expediency of the translation of the arrows shrug. "Unfortunately, there is not a single scientific justification for this issue," he said. Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Occupational Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine Yuriy Kundiev. - But if you just think sensibly, then artificially creating time by changing the clock twice a year is not worth it. Animals, plants and people have always been guided by the sun. A kind of temporal stereotype has developed. Changing the clock is, according to Pavlov, breaking such a stereotype with all the ensuing consequences for human health.

And even if this breakdown does not last long, only a few days, anyway, according to the scientist, it has a negative impact. Particularly sensitive people may even develop symptoms of a disease such as desynchronosis. This is an occupational disease of sailors, truckers, travelers. Its symptoms are sleep disturbance, increased fatigue, irritability, inattention, decreased creative thinking, mood swings from apathy to a sharp revival, gastrointestinal discomfort, lack of appetite, headache, increased heart rate, heart pain, decreased potency in men and frigidity in women.

Yuri Ilyich also believes that one decree of the head of state, as in Russia, is still not enough to resolve such an important issue in the life of society as the rejection of the seasonal switch. Scientific justification is needed. First of all, the answer should be given: is it necessary for the last time this spring to speed up the clock by an hour, as the Russians did. Moreover, it would be worthwhile to hurry up with the conclusions: the next transfer of arrows is just around the corner.

BY THE WAY

For the first time, moving the clock hands forward one hour in summer and one hour back in winter began in Great Britain in 1908 to save electricity. But the idea itself belongs to the US President, one of the authors of the US Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin. In his country, the changeover to seasonal time began in 1918.

Now the translation of arrows, depending on the time of year, is carried out in more than 80 of 192 countries of the world.

On June 16, 1930, the so-called "maternity leave" was introduced in the USSR. Then the hands of the clock were moved one hour ahead of standard time. Then they were never returned. And the country of the Soviets was an hour ahead of the natural daily cycle all year round. And in 1981, the USSR switched to seasonal time.

After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine in 1990 switched to its own time (1 hour difference with Moscow), coinciding with the standard time, continuing to move the clock another hour in the fall and spring - forward or backward.

Now more and more countries are abandoning seasonal time changes. Japan was one of the first to abandon watch savings as early as 1952.