The winter day as a constraint for human activity in Western Europe

TL;DR

This study analyzes time use surveys across Western Europe to understand how winter daylight constraints influence human activity patterns, revealing that clock time differences are less significant when viewed relative to sunrise and sunset.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of activity timings across multiple countries, highlighting the impact of winter daylight constraints on human behavior.

Findings

Winter day constrains activity timing across Western Europe.

Time differences are smaller when measured relative to sunrise and sunset.

Sunrise and sunset times influence activity schedules more than clock time.

Abstract

Time use surveys in Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy and United Kingdom are analyzed to provide start, noon and end times for the main activities of a society: labor (the focus of this preprint), sleeping and eating. Also, the location at home is analyzed. Local times are converted into mean solar times and compared to latitude. Observed trends allow to unveil the winter day as a restriction for the human activity. Alternatively, apparently large time differences set forth by clocks, becomes smaller when observed as a time distance to winter sunrise or sunset.