Cuba is skipping its November 1, 2026 clock change and staying on DST until 2027(www.timeanddate.com)
47 pointsby n_plus_1_acc2 hours ago20 comments
  • Svipan hour ago
    This articles mentions that Cuba tried permanent DST in 2004-06. This makes me wonder, has anyone ever tried permanent DST and not given up? I know Russia attempted in 2011-2013[1] (before switching to permanent standard time), and the US did it in 1974[2] before going back. I know British Columbia did it this year, but I wonder how long that will last. BC is pretty North, and I wonder how local Canadians will feel about the very dark mornings in winter.

    [1] https://timeinrussia.com/daylight-saving-russia/ [2] https://www.newsweek.com/the-us-tried-permanent-daylight-sav...

    • dubcanada39 minutes ago
      Mornings are still dark doesn't really matter
  • torvaldan hour ago
    From what I've gathered, this is the plan for all EU countries as well. But the pandemic has stalled the overall process.

    https://jp.ibtimes.com/eu-clock-change-plan-stalled-104949

    • w3ll_w3ll_w3llan hour ago
      In EU it's currently stalled because some countries want to stay permanently on their DST time (south europe) and others (north europe) want to stay on their solar time.

      It's better to make a common decison about this, so we are stalled.

      • mcv38 minutes ago
        It's weird to standardise on summer time instead of standard time. It moves you one timezone to the east. And in western Europe, a lot of countries are already on central European time. Permanent summertime would put them on eastern European time, same as Kyiv. In winter the sun wouldn't come up until 9:30.
        • LluisGerard33 minutes ago
          In Spain most people I talk to want permanent summertime because they like having sun late at the evening during summer, and they can't stand it when in winter the sun sets at 17:00. I think the issue is that a lot of offices work from 9:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 19:00. I remember when working on an office in Barcelona and having to drive 1 hour. I would leave home in darkness and drive back home in darkness.
          • CiaranMcNulty20 minutes ago
            It’s also because Spain being on CEST makes little sense, with its longitude
        • wongarsu28 minutes ago
          Moving time "east" of our actual timezone is pretty appealing to me because of how evening-heavy standard schedules have gotten. The sun might behave symmetrically around 12:00, but most people don't get up at 4:00 and go to bed at 20:00. Most people's days are shifted 2-4 hours to the evening compared to that symmetric schedule, which makes sunlight in the evening more useful than it is in the morning
        • tedodor24 minutes ago
          I would rather stay on permanent summer time and give up one hour of sun in the morning for one more hour of sunlight in the afternoon, even if it places us "wrong" geographically. The recent change from summer to winter time was brutal moving the sunset from 17:30 to 16:30, meaning it's dark when going home from work.
        • matwood31 minutes ago
          Maybe I’m an outlier, but I’d rather it stay light later. Sunset at 16:30 in the winter is horrible and depressing IMO.
        • karlosvomacka26 minutes ago
          > In winter the sun wouldn't come up until 9:30.

          Much better than having sunset before 16:00.

          • nkmnz23 minutes ago
            Depends on your personal preference. It's ridiculous that the politic topic is the question "should most of us suffer in the morning or should most of us suffer in evening", instead of "how could we allow for more flexible individual schedules", especially when it comes to school, opening hours of public services, and store hours.
          • nkmnz18 minutes ago
            P.S.: it's not even a question of personal preference. It's a question of scientific evidence. Even if you don't believe that most of these benefits apply to most people, you're free to bring evidence about the benefits of early-evening light exposure...

            Evidence-backed benefits of morning light exposure:

            Advances the circadian clock, helping shift the body's biological night earlier. Randomized controlled study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24179293/

            Promotes earlier sleep timing and may improve subjective sleep quality. Systematic review of 45 studies: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30670164/

            Improves alertness, attention, and reaction times, although average effects are small. 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 150 studies involving 5,401 participants (daytime light, not exclusively morning): https://doi.org/10.1080/15502724.2025.2493669

            Helps treat seasonal depression (SAD). Systematic review and network meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials involving 773 patients: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40629637/

            Can improve outcomes in nonseasonal depression when bright-light therapy is added to treatment. 2024 meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials involving 858 patients: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39356500/

            Natural daylight exposure helps synchronize the biological clock with the solar day. Experimental research found that exposure to natural light-dark cycles advanced circadian timing compared with modern indoor lighting environments: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23910656/

          • flohofwoe23 minutes ago
            What? No! I find it utterly depressing to get up in the morning and it's still completely dark outside. A dark late afternoon is much nicer IMHO.
        • stavros33 minutes ago
          And it would also set later, which is my personal preference as a Greek.
      • Someone19 minutes ago
        > and others (north europe) want to stay on their solar time.

        Closer to their solar time, for quite a few. As an extreme example, most of Spain lies West of the prime meridian (some parts of it even west of Great Britain, the island), but its time zone is an hour ahead of that of London.

        • mantas9 minutes ago
          But does solar time matters nowadays? In modern day-to-day life noon is not 12:00. People wake up at 5-6-7. And go to bed at 10-11-12. Even for early risers, middle of the day is well past 12:00. Having DST time makes solar mid-day closer to factual mid-day. I'd even argue to for +2 hours DST :D
          • DocTomoe2 minutes ago
            IT matters when you have an economic zone in which some have 9am being 'basically mid-day', while the others have '9am being 'oh, the sun just went up'.

            This traditionally has been solved in two ways:

            1. do the split and accept that you will have costs associated with different time zones and sleep/wake cycles in your population (e.g.: USA / Soviet Russia)

            2. don't do the split, and have the cost by putting a time/light adjustment burden on the population (e.g.: PRC, European Union)

            My preferred solution would be to abandon all time zones and use something like UTC, or yet better: .beat / Biel Mean Time [1], which does not come with a 'oh, 12 means midday' penalty.

            [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

      • lgrebe33 minutes ago
        I dont see how having multiple timezones in europe would be disadvantageous.
        • 4thguy32 minutes ago
          Exactly. It's not like there aren't multiple timezones in Europe already
        • mantas11 minutes ago
          At least in my whereabouts it's more about split opinions inside the country.
      • not-kinsale-joe34 minutes ago
        I think there is also an issue with Ireland needing to stay in the same time zone as Northern Ireland.
      • mantas12 minutes ago
        It's more complex than north vs south.

        I'm quite north (but not the far north) but I'm strongly for DST. If we went for solar time, we'd loose long bright evenings in the summer but have sun at 3am. Spring/fall evenings would be much darker too. I hate time switching. But I'd rather switch then loose DST summer evenings. Otherwise we'd loose a lot of outdoorsy socialising on weekdays

        But some people don't go outdoors after work. And they prefer brighter mornings for couple extra weeks. During the winter the mornings are dark with or without DST.

  • gvierian hour ago
    I really hope that Italy will follow... Every single time adjustment (or jet lag) is a drama for me.
    • Heliosmasteran hour ago
      Fwiw last week my and my family kept our clocks in CEST. My son sleeps an hour longer in the morning. But we go to bed before 21. Aiuto!
      • mystifyingpoian hour ago
        I hate DST switching, and since last 3 days I've tried to live as if DST didn't happen, go to sleep super early etc.

        It completely fails when you account for everyone else around you. Could work if you live alone with flexible working hours. But having a semi-active social life and kids makes it impossible.

    • paganel30 minutes ago
      > Every single time adjustment (or jet lag) is a drama for me

      As a counter-point, I personally don't even notice it. Also, I live in Romania, so every trip West of the border, even just to Hungary, means a one-hour change, so, again, no big deal.

      • flohofwoe20 minutes ago
        Yeah same here, I don't even noticed the time switch this time. I remember it was worse as teenager, so maybe it affects young people more than old farts ;)
  • presentation29 minutes ago
    I thought that DST was dumb until I moved to Tokyo and find it sad that sunset is at 4pm in the winter
    • nkmnz26 minutes ago
      Sunset isn't changed by DST. You adjust your schedule. You're free to do so on your own terms, without the government forcing everyone to do the same shift at the same time for the same amount of time.
      • maratc7 minutes ago
        It only works when you don't have children (kindergartens and schools start at 8) or spouse (who can have a different schedule) or office work (so you don't have to be at the office at 9.)

        Time has stopped being an astronomical fact, and is a social contract nowadays. It's possible that you can afford to opt out of that contract, but most people can't.

    • 24 minutes ago
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  • therealfigtreean hour ago
    I'm curious how disruptive this would be from a database perspective ? For eg, All the flight bookings to/from Cuba needs to be updated because it would have originally accounted for DST.
  • igleria4 minutes ago
    Here in Ireland we already changed the clock on 25/10
  • wafflemakeran hour ago
    If they still move time back in spring, they will gain 1h per person.

    If they keep doing it indefinitely, they're looking at some serious profits and boost to GDP.

    • throw-qqqqq28 minutes ago
      Haha I know a skit from 1990, where the comedian makes this exact point.

      He even takes it a step further:

      “Why settle for turning back time just one hour? Think about how much we f*cked up the world in the past 30 years! Let’s turn time back 30 years and fix that mess!”

    • vascoan hour ago
      This is Cuba we're talking about. Profits only matter if they go to the ruling family and friends.
      • berkes41 minutes ago
        That's unnecessary political stereotyping.

        But what does matter in Cuba, is Savings.

        The country is in shambles, beyond bankruptcy, in cases literally starving. Because of it"international" sanctions. Severe shortages of petrol, water and energy.

        So it wouldn't be surprising if, by moving the clock every year in just one direction, petrol, water and electricity is saved. And it wouldn't even be suprising if that actually happens.

        • stavros32 minutes ago
          It's not stereotyping when it can be applied to basically every country in the world, including the US.
  • ComSubVie11 minutes ago
    I hope the EU will follow soon. Or at least my home country. Since the EU already has different time zones, the stalling because "all should have the same time" doesn't make sense.
  • RandomSwedish41 minutes ago
    God, I would love if the EU actually got going with it.
  • dsign39 minutes ago
    Does anybody what's the status with solar power there? Seems like the country would have plenty of sun to use. I know that some private people in the island are running almost 24x7 on solar and batteries, but most private people, companies and specially the government are still in blackout.
  • phgnan hour ago
    Nice! I don't really care if we end up on daylight savings or not, just stop this time change madness finally please!
    • Boltgoltan hour ago
      If you read the article it's the worst of both worlds: Keep clock time the same but start work and school 30 minutes later?
      • genxyan hour ago
        Shouldn't we just get up when the sun comes up? And if you can't see the sun, everyone can stay home.
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    • ssl-3an hour ago
      This is the only reasonable and measured take.

      (Unfortunately, it always gets derailed by highly-polarized discussions about whether to stay on DST forever or get rid of it forever. They'll be showing up here again soon enough.)

      • oddIdentitiesan hour ago
        It is a reasonable take but it is not the _only_ one - I think it is arguably more reasonable to transition away from DST to ordinary "best TZ granularity approximation to zenith-occurs-at-noon" time once, and then stay (and manage) that time over the millenia to come.
        • ssl-341 minutes ago
          I like this idea. I like it quite a lot.

          But can we... uh... can we keep that as some kind of tertiary issue to solve later after we successfully stop screwing up the clocks twice every year? We don't really need to build a singular omnibus clock overhaul that will most assuredly never come to fruition, do we? :)

    • mhdan hour ago
      Swatch Beat time.
  • tomkarho34 minutes ago
    Good for them. Hope that shames the rest of the world (looking at you EU) to action too.
  • timonoko43 minutes ago
    I have totally solved all issues. I have additional pointer on my watchface for the true position of the sun. https://photos.app.goo.gl/M95bW4XWR2NDUup46
  • boonzeetan hour ago
    40 odd lines just for handling Cuba alone, amazing
  • aussieguy123434 minutes ago
    This makes sense given all of the power outages largely caused by U.S. sanctions. You would in this scenario want to have more daylight extending into the night time hours.
  • throwaway27448an hour ago
    I don't understand the obsession with keeping the perfectly vertical sun at noon given we all work from dark to dark under winter time. What would actually help us experience daylight would NOT be moving the clocks or moving work an hour earlier or a few hours later
  • OsrsNeedsf2P2 hours ago
    manually rolled datetime library screams
  • thendrillan hour ago
    So... Cuba is the voice of reason?

    Yehh Europe is loosing its mind..

    I belive this whole clock fliopity flip twice a year is a huge contributing factor to people's "unbalance", and worsening mental state... Especially the northern parts....

    We humans are creatures of habit... Mess with the circadian rhythm of en entire population and expect no adverse effect.... Mhm checks out.

    • Boltgoltan hour ago
      Calling canceling a time change mere days before it was going to happen "the voice of reason" is rich
      • lloekian hour ago
        "Days" is plenty of time, IIRC some tz changes happened hours before they had to come into effect!
    • input_sh29 minutes ago
      Most of the world is the voice of reason actually.

      This is a very European / North American problem for some reason. There are some exceptions, but in general Asia, Africa and South America don't do this.

    • marliechiller34 minutes ago
      I remember reading somewhere that we see an increased incidence of heart related ailments around the clock change, hypothesized due to this change in sleep patterns.
    • paganel28 minutes ago
      > a huge contributing factor to people's "unbalance", and worsening mental state.

      This is surely an exaggeration.

    • jansanan hour ago
      The EU again is all talk and no action on this topic. 84% said in a poll to get rid of it back in 2018, parliament voted to end it by 2021. But here we are at the end of 2026 turning the clocks back again. Next march same thing. Honestly at this point I don't think it will ever happen, they will still be "discussing"it in 2040.
    • echoanglean hour ago
      > and worsening mental state

      How would something that has been in effect for at least 60 years still lead to a worsening mental state over time?

  • zombotan hour ago
    WTF. They should abolish DST.
    • F3nd0an hour ago
      Why?
      • mrweaselan hour ago
        I don't know it this will be the case for Cuba, as it's somewhat differently placed on the map, but Russia tried DST only and had to switch to standard time and then stayed there.

        Some people absolutely loves DST for some reason, but it creates stress and mental problems for people, especially in the north. The long mornings are somehow worse than the short evenings. Technically it shouldn't matter what the clock shows, but when society insists on things happening at a certain time, whether or not the sun is out becomes important.

        For the Russian case see: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28423647

        • paganel26 minutes ago
          > especially in the north

          We don't care about the people living in the North, there are more of us living not in North and as we live in a democracy (the EU) the majority vote should cound on this.

      • skeledrew13 minutes ago
        Because it's generally senseless, and particularly for them even more so given their location.
      • oddIdentitiesan hour ago
        Because DST is the wrong time; if you look at the legal implementation of DST, most countries carve out exceptions for fields where lying about the time can obviously lead to death and destruction - navigation being perhaps the main one.

        What everyone missed is that DST could itself lead to much greater loss of life than we might have lost had the use of DST been mandated all the way through to e.g. large naval, air or spacecraft.

        And as research into DST continues, this seems to have been not merely an abstract possibility was missed, but _the actual outcome_. DST is quite literally killing people by the thousands.

  • aaron695an hour ago
    [dead]