The countdown to winter time has begun, with the clocks changing, as every year, on the last Sunday of October. In Cyprus, the change for 2026 will take place in the early hours of Sunday 25 October.
At 04:00, clocks should be turned back one hour to 03:00. In practice, this means we will "gain" an hour of sleep that night, as the summer time period comes to an end. With the change, Cyprus returns to Eastern European Time, UTC+2.
Summer time will return in spring 2027, on Sunday 28 March, when the clocks will once again move forward one hour.
Why the clocks change before dawn
The choice of the early morning hours for the change is not accidental. It is a time when traffic and general activity by citizens, businesses and services are noticeably reduced. This limits the practical impact the change can have on transport, businesses, services and electronic systems that run on fixed schedules.
On most modern electronic devices, such as mobile phones, computers and smartwatches, the change happens automatically, provided the automatic date and time setting is switched on.
An extra hour of sleep, but earlier darkness
The return to winter time means that the night of 25 October will last one hour longer. From the following day, however, sunset will come earlier, and it will get dark noticeably sooner in the afternoon.
The change takes place under the system of switching between summer and winter time that is still applied in the European Union. Despite the debate that has been under way for years at European level on possibly abolishing seasonal clock changes, no such change has been implemented so far, and the current system remains in force.
