Belgium will switch to summer time tonight, advancing clocks by one hour at 2:00 on Sunday.
This means clocks will jump to 3:00, resulting in the loss of an hour of sleep but an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
The biannual clock change was introduced in Belgium in 1977 to save energy following the oil crisis, although its effectiveness remains a point of debate.
Critics argue that the energy savings are negligible and that the clock change disrupts the body’s biological clock, which regulates sleep and other processes over a 24-hour cycle.
In 2018, the European Commission proposed scrapping the time change, citing positive feedback from surveys. In Belgium, a federal survey found that 83% of respondents supported ending it.
However, the proposal stalled in December 2019, as EU member states failed to agree on a unified approach, ultimately deciding that each country could choose its own time standard.
Since then, the matter has remained unresolved, and most European countries, including Belgium, continue to adjust their clocks twice a year—in March for summer time and in October for winter time.
Belgium’s next switch, to winter time, is scheduled for the last weekend of October, on the night of 24 to 25 October 2026.
