Winter time 2026: the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October – and why the EU still hasn't managed to abolish the change
At 03:00 on Sunday 25 October the clocks go back to 02:00, and we get back the hour we lost in March. Eight years after the European Commission proposed ending the change, nothing has been decided. Here are the dates, the state of play in the EU, what the science says – and what would happen to morning light in Oslo.
In the early hours of Sunday 25 October, 03:00 becomes 02:00. Norway and the rest of Europe move from summer time (CEST, UTC+2) to standard time (CET, UTC+1), the hour between two and three happens twice, and most of us get an extra hour in bed. It is the earliest date the change can fall on – the last time it fell on 25 October was 2020, the next will be 2037 – and, for the record, the clocks go back: in autumn we gain, in spring we give. Your phone, computer and smartwatch handle it themselves. The oven, the car, the microwave and the wall clock do not.
So much for the routine. The more interesting question is why we are still doing this, eight years after the European Commission proposed stopping, 84 percent of 4.6 million Europeans said yes please, and the European Parliament voted to make 2021 the last time.
The dates you need
- Winter time: Sunday 25 October 2026, 03:00 → 02:00.
- Summer time 2027: Sunday 28 March 2027, 02:00 → 03:00.
- After that: 31 October 2027, 26 March and 29 October 2028, 25 March and 28 October 2029.
- The United States does not change until 1 November. For one week the gap between Oslo and New York is therefore five hours instead of six – worth knowing if you have meetings across the Atlantic. The United Kingdom changes the same night as Norway.
The rules sit in Norway's summer-time regulation: standard time in Norway is one hour ahead of UTC, and summer time runs from 02:00 on the last Sunday of March to 03:00 on the last Sunday of October. The regulation implements the EU directive of 2001 through the EEA Agreement, and it also applies on Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Responsibility lies with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Norwegian Metrology Service, which keeps the national atomic clocks.
The EU file that never closes
In the summer of 2018 the European Commission invited Europeans to have their say. 4.6 million replied – more than in any consultation before – and 84 percent wanted an end to clock changes. On 12 September that year Jean-Claude Juncker tabled the proposal: a final change in 2019, with each country choosing whether to keep summer or winter time permanently. The Commission's own reasoning was sober: the energy savings are "marginal", and the health and road-safety evidence "inconclusive". On 26 March 2019 the European Parliament voted 410 to 192 to end the changes from 2021.
Then it stalled in the Council, where the member states sit. The problem was never whether to stop, but what to stop on. Finland chose permanent winter time, Poland proposed a trial of permanent summer time, and Germany – the big brake – demanded an impact assessment and two-thirds of countries on the same time, fearing a patchwork of time zones across the single market. The file then lay untouched for several years.
In autumn 2025 it woke up again: Spain's prime minister Pedro Sánchez asked the Council in October to end the change from 2026, backed by Finland and Poland, and Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas promised Parliament to fight "until we finally stop changing clocks in Europe". The result was a new study: in February 2026 the Commission launched an impact assessment of ten scenarios, including permanent summer time, permanent winter time and new time borders between countries, with a conclusion expected "by the end of 2026", according to a Council document from June. No vote has taken place in 2026. Lithuania, which takes over the presidency in January, has signalled that the issue will be a priority. Even in the best case, a study must become a decision by qualified majority, be negotiated with Parliament and be announced well in advance – so 2027 is the earliest conceivable end, and 2028 more likely.
And Norway, which is not an EU member but follows the directive through the EEA? "What the EU does with time will be important for our decision here at home," trade minister Cecilie Myrseth said last year, and this spring she repeated that "for the time being we continue with summer time and standard time". The ministry promises a public consultation before anything is decided. One small detail: the government's own press release states that "the European Commission has voted yes to abolishing the arrangement". That is imprecise – the Commission proposed, it was Parliament that voted – but the conclusion holds: the matter "is still being considered by the Council", and "it is unclear when a conclusion will come".
What the science actually says
It is the spring change that costs. A study of heart attacks in Michigan found 24 percent more admissions on the Monday after the clocks went forward – and 21 percent fewer on the Tuesday after the autumn change – but the same number over the week as a whole; the change shifts heart attacks more than it creates them. A meta-analysis of seven studies with more than 115,000 patients gives a small but significant five percent increase after the spring change and no effect in autumn. 732,835 fatal crashes on American roads show six percent more deaths in the week after the spring change, mostly in the morning, and no effect of the autumn change. The autumn hour is thus gentler on hearts and traffic – but not harmless: a Danish register of 185,000 psychiatric contacts found eleven percent more depressive episodes after the autumn change, an effect that faded over ten weeks.
That is why sleep scientists agree on one thing, and it surprises many: if we stop, we should choose winter time. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended in 2020 "a fixed, national, year-round standard time", because daylight saving time is "less aligned with human circadian biology"; the international society for biological rhythms said the same the year before. The argument is morning light: it is the light in the morning that sets the body clock, and permanent summer time means late winter sunrises and a society in chronic "social jetlag". A Stanford model from September 2025 estimates that permanent standard time in the US would mean around 300,000 fewer strokes and 2.6 million fewer people with obesity – modelled, not measured, as the researchers themselves stress.
And the energy savings, which were the whole point in 1916? A natural experiment in Indiana, where parts of the state introduced daylight saving time in 2006, showed that electricity use rose by about one percent: what was saved on lighting was lost on heating and cooling.
Norway has tried this before – and stopped
Norway had summer time in 1916, during the war, and from 1959 to 1965. The last round was, according to the Norwegian encyclopaedia, "highly controversial", and in May 1965 parliament decided that it would, for now, be the last year. It returned only in 1980, together with Sweden and Denmark, and since 1996 Norway has followed the EU dates. A large self-selected survey collected by the University of Bergen in 2019–2020, with 47,194 responses, found that 78 percent wanted to stop changing the clocks – and that 61.5 percent would then prefer permanent summer time, 29 percent permanent winter time. The exact opposite of the sleep scientists' advice.
The dilemma, measured in sunrises
Here is why nobody can choose. With permanent summer time, the sun in Oslo would rise at 10:15 on 21 December, and at 10:16 in the days after Christmas; in Bergen at 10:41, in Trondheim at 10:57. Children would walk to school in pitch darkness well into February. With permanent winter time, on the other hand, the sun would rise at 02:50 at midsummer in Oslo and set at 21:47 instead of 22:47 – the bright summer evenings cut by an hour, literally. Tromsø is unaffected at both ends: the polar night does not care about the clock. This weekend the sun sets in Oslo at 17:46 on Saturday and 16:43 on Sunday. From now on it gets dark before dinner – good news for aurora hunters, less good for everyone else.
Practicalities
- Night shift? You work the repeated hour and are paid for it under your contract or collective agreement – Norway's Working Environment Act defines working time as the time you are at the employer's disposal and says nothing special about clock changes.
- Countries that don't change: Iceland (since 1968), Russia (permanent standard time since 2014), Belarus, Turkey (UTC+3 all year since 2016), Mexico (abolished 2022), Japan, China and India.
- The United States is closer to a decision than Europe: on 14 July 2026 the House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act by 308 votes to 117, making daylight saving time permanent – the opposite of what sleep scientists recommend. The Senate has not voted, and Donald Trump called the clock change "ridiculous" in October.
Frequently asked questions
When do the clocks go back in Norway in 2026?
In the early hours of Sunday 25 October, at 03:00, which becomes 02:00.
Forward or back?
Back. Rule of thumb: in autumn we gain an hour, in spring we give one.
Is the EU getting rid of daylight saving time?
Not any time soon. The 2018 proposal is still alive, a new study is due around the turn of the year, and no decision has been taken. 2027 is the earliest conceivable end, 2028 more likely. Norway follows the EU and its neighbours.
Why do we have daylight saving time at all?
Originally to save energy during the First World War. The savings are negligible today; the arrangement survives because trade, transport and broadcasting schedules across Europe depend on everyone doing the same thing.
Do I get an extra hour of sleep?
In theory, yes. Sleep scientists say it takes a couple of days for the body clock to catch up, and that it is the spring change that is the unhealthy one.
Is Norway on CET or CEST?
CEST (UTC+2) until 25 October, then CET (UTC+1) until 28 March 2027.
