"BACK TO THE FUTURE"

At 0300 on the last Sunday of October every year, clocks are turned back one hour in Azerbaijan. Thus, we enter the winter period which lasts until March. Despite the fact that we are all used to this process, there is still no single opinion as to whether it is bad for our health or not. Most experts believe that the time change can only be good for us and that those who feel uncomfortable with the sudden change have actually deluded themselves into thinking so.

To curb time

Man tries to get up at dawn in order to make maximum use of the day. The idea of summer and winter time, which is employed in many countries of the world, arises from this objective. Combining the hours when we are awake with those of daylight makes it possible to save electricity: in spring clocks which are set at their zone time are turned one hour forward and in autumn they are turned back to the zone time. The idea to divide the Earth into time zones, each of 15 degrees of latitude, and to take the Greenwich meridian as zero, was proposed by the Canadian engineer Fleming. The time is the same everywhere within a zone, while on the border clocks are set one hour back or forward. Fleming's idea was accepted by the US government in 1883. In 1884, 26 countries signed an agreement on time zones at an international conference in Washington.

The system of summer and winter time operates in more than 110 countries, with the idea of "twisting the hands of the clock" originating in Britain in 1909. Businessman William Willett thought that, having been given an extra hour of natural light, the working class would use it for leisure, which would lead to a growth in productivity. Moreover, criminality and the abuse of alcohol would decline, thought Willett, and he was right. Many European governments took on the British experiment during World War I, because this system allowed the economy to work more effectively. Russia also adopted this system after the October Revolution. On 8 February 1918, time zones were introduced by a decree issued by the Council of Ministers "in order to establish a uniform system of time with the civilized world, which would establish the same measurements of time in minutes and seconds throughout the world and simplify considerably mutual relations between people, public events and most natural phenomena". Following a government decree of 16 June 1930, clocks throughout the Soviet Union were turned forward by one hour. This constituted legal time, which made it possible to save electricity. According to a 1 April 1981 resolution of the Council of Ministers, clocks were turned a further hour ahead. Thus, summer time ended up being two hours ahead of zone time. For a period of 10 years, clocks were turned back one hour in winter and returned to their previous position in summer. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in March 1991, legal time was cancelled in independent Azerbaijan and the two-hour jump was abolished. We adopted the summer-winter time system. Now we stick to zone time in winter and turn clocks forward by one hour in summer.

We count time by the mean solar day, divided into hours, minutes and seconds, i.e. by the arithmetic-mean length of all real solar days in a year (the difference between the length of real and average days can be as much as 15 minutes because of the non-circular orbit of our planet). Opponents of the time change say that an average person gets up at 0700 and goes to bed at 2300. Thus from March he gets up after dawn. By turning the clocks forward, he is forced to get up earlier. This is justified by the fact that he will be getting up in daylight and using less electricity. The return to winter time in October does not help to save electricity. This is done only to ensure that people do not get up before sunrise in winter. For this reason, the switch to winter time does not seem to be justified.

Living by the sun

Psychologists believe that, in terms of common sense, it is more rational to return to legal time, to stop changing the clocks every year and to be one hour ahead of zone time. Such a rhythm of life, from a biological point of view, is more beneficial, although there are people who do not react at all to the mass change of time and, on the contrary, some people are happy with an extra hour of sleep. Proponents of the time change maintain that such a switch meets the demands of the body, as there is no evidence to show that this procedure is harmful to people. For example, in summer people's work phase is earlier in the day and in winter it returns to a later phase. The winter phase suits the natural rhythm of people's lives. We sense the solar rhythm, and people's biorhythms adapt to the Sun, not to the clock. The switch to winter time is good for people because it is easier to get up at dawn than in the pitch dark.

Opponents say that 20 per cent of the population are discomfited by the nominal time change. It has the biggest effect on 10-12 year old children and the elderly. In some cases, people may be knocked out of their normal rhythm of life for two or three months before they finally adjust their biological clock. All in all, there are about 300 physiological processes regulated by daily rhythms. These processes, for example, produce hormones and regulate body temperature. Doctors issue special warnings to people because expectant mothers are especially susceptible - they should get used to the time change gradually. It is better to change your schedule gradually - by 15-20 minutes per day in order to stretch the adaptation over about a week. Many think that the switch to different times twice a year is "an act of serious violence against the law of nature". For example, the switch to summer time causes a failure in the psychological and physiological functioning of the body. In the language of medicine, de-synchronization occurs. This causes migraine, depression, heart attacks, hypertension, obesity or exhaustion and the exacerbation of chronic diseases. Biological rhythms return to normal only a month after the time change!

Disputes continue

Continual exchanges on this subject show that the debates surrounding time change are not abating. In any case, there are countries which deliberately avoid the bother of changing from winter to summer time and back - for example, China, Japan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. These states prefer to measure time without surges - in a calm and natural manner. I doubt that the accurate Japanese have not considered the saving to their energy resources.

On this issue, Azerbaijan is closer to the old Europe which actually created all this mess. There are two arguments here: the gains to the power economy (arguments used by the USA and Russia) and the so-called "quality of life", which means taking care of the population (this is Europe's argument). Officials in various countries have yet to sort out this mess, and the results of their work may be significant.

For example, in the United States summer time will continue from one winter to another for the next two years, according to a new law. The rules used in Europe are not permanent either. EU Directive 200/84/EG, which took effect in 2002, says that summer time in all member countries of the EU is introduced from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. Many European countries which are not members of the EU also stick to this directive.

Every five years, the European Union establishes a procedure for switching summer time for the next five years - the current statute is valid until 2008. Thus, changes cannot be ruled out for Europe in the future. Europe has long given up on the belief that the switch to summer time helps save electricity. Instead, they say this improves the quality of life because it "gets dark" later at night. In this way, those who start working one hour earlier in the morning, because of the time change, can make more active use of the daylight in the evening.

In the United States, everything is much more prosaic. Summer time is called Daylight Saving Time (DST), and the Americans firmly believe in its importance to energy saving. Those who go to bed earlier turn off the lights, TV set, video recorder and stereo, they say. Meanwhile, surveys carried out in the 1970s showed that the economy of power across the country amounts to only one per cent.

According to the law on energy policy signed by President George Bush, summer time has been extended by a further month. In this period, it will continue from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, not the way it is now - from the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October. In general, the duration of summer time has been established by law until 2015. However, Congress may decide to return to the previous procedure after receiving a report from a relevant department on the consequences of this innovation. Whatever happens, debates on "curbing time" are continuing.