Editor TLN
( Spanish) — Most of Mexico will switch to winter time in the early hours of Sunday, October 30, in which clocks will go back one hour. And it will be for the last time.
The change, which will be made at 02:00 a.m. on Sunday, will end daylight saving time. which began on Sunday April 3.
This measure, which had been in force in the country since 1996 and implied that every April Mexicans would advance the clock and months later they would delay it, came to an end in 2022 after the approval of a law that eliminates summer time.
(On the weekend of October 30, remember that the clocks that are on a device connected to the internet generally adjust the time automatically, but in the rest you will have to make the change manually. It is best to do it before to go to sleep on Saturday, to wake up with the correct time).
What places do not follow this change?
The time change will not be made in the states of Quintana Roo and Sonora, which do not change the time before the arrival of summer.
Also, remember that in case you live in the states bordering the United States, your time changed at the same time as that of the northern neighbor when summer approached and will end on November 6.
How much does Mexico save with the time change?
The objective of advancing the clocks in summer (which implies turning them back when winter approaches) is energy savings. However, according to the administration, the impact on this variable “is very low with respect to total consumption” and null in family spending, according to the explanation given by the Minister of Energy, Rocío Nahle, when presenting the initiative to eliminate summer time. .
In 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Energy, the savings caused by summer time was 537 gigawatts per hour, which represents 0.16% of national consumption, and is equivalent to 1,138 million pesos (US $55,288).
Nahle released this year the result of a survey on the subject in which 71% of the participants said they disagree with changing the time. “There is a popular rejection, there is a permanent disagreement in society since 1996, when this schedule was installed,” she said in July without giving more details.
Another of the arguments that the Government of Mexico had given to say goodbye to this schedule, which multiple experts share, has to do with health.
Changes disrupt our sleep schedules and harm our health, according to experts from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The impacts are wide-ranging and include bad news for cardiovascular health, possible stroke and atrial fibrillation, medical errors, mental health problems, and even traffic accidents.
Time to change your practices
Many people look forward to the extra hour of sleep that comes with the change to daylight saving time, but it’s not enough to erase chronic sleep debt, Dr. Kannan Ramar, a professor of medicine at the Sleep Medicine Center in New York, told . the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
However, the extra hour of rest can make you wake up feeling more refreshed, which can motivate you to sleep more.
This is a good time to implement healthy “sleep hygiene” practices, which will help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. Here we explain how you can do it.
With reporting from ‘s Megan Marples and Jen Rose Smith.
