Standard time or summer time? The time zone that divides Europe

Maintaining daylight saving time in winter, however, does not lengthen the days, but simply shifts an hour of light from morning to evening. It is precisely on this exchange that the international scientific community raises its doubts. Recent official positions from major sleep societies, including the British Sleep Society, reiterate that maintaining standard time all year round is the only safe option for public health. Doctors and neurologists agree on the need to abolish the double seasonal change (considered a stress factor for circadian rhythms), but believe it is essential to adopt permanent solar time. Natural light in the early hours of the morning is in fact precious for synchronizing our biological clock and promoting natural awakening. His winter deprivation would seriously alter his sleep-wake rhythms.

With winter summer time, on the solstice (21/22 December) the geographical difference would be felt, particularly in the North: astronomical calculations confirm that the sun would rise at 9:04 in Turin, at 9:00 in Milan, at 8:34 in Rome and at 8:23 in Naples. Millions of students and workers would begin the working and school day in total darkness for an entire term, facing the coldest temperatures without the comfort of the sun. This would cause an increase in tiredness, chronic lack of sleep, loss of concentration and mood disorders.

Brussels should be the one to settle the issue between evening lifestyle and morning biological rhythms, but the obstacle still remains the community institutional architecture. In 2018, a maxi-European public consultation saw 84% of citizens support the abolition of the seasonal change, pushing the European Parliament to approve a directive in March 2019 to leave freedom of choice to individual states.

Since then, negotiations have stalled in the Council of the European Union. The blockade is dictated by the well-founded fear of fragmenting the single market: different time zones between neighboring nations would appreciably complicate cross-border transport, logistics and rail connections.

Northern Europe (like Finland) wants permanent solar time to avoid too late dawns in winter, while Southern Europe (Italy, Spain) defends summer time to encourage tourism and the evening lifestyle. Outside Europe, however, double exchange is in decline. Just in July 2026, in the United States, the House approved the Sunshine Protection Act to establish permanent daylight saving time (the reform is awaiting the green light from the Senate). In the same period, in 2024, Ukraine attempted to abolish the change to stay with standard time (reform voted by Parliament but not signed by the President), while Kazakhstan (March 2024) unified time zones by blocking the time for the whole year, joining Mexico (2022), Brazil (2019) and Russia (returned to standard time in 2014 after popular protests due to the winter darkness). Finally, Asia and Africa abandoned this practice decades ago.

Despite a recent parliamentary push in Italy - with a resolution presented to the Chamber of Deputies on 15 October 2026 to ask the Government to be the spokesperson for permanent summer time within the EU - national room for maneuver remains zero. Italy, like the other member countries, is bound by the directive currently in force and cannot proceed with autonomous exemptions, not even for temporary experiments. The horizon for a potential reopening of the negotiating table is set at the end of 2026, when Brussels will receive the results of a new technical study. Until then, the autumn "liturgy" remains the same: on Sunday we sleep an hour more, but in the afternoon the light will greet us early.