Kalevi Kull: Summer time is simply an era of nature estrangement

Semiotician Kalevi Kull argues that conventional summer time represents a disconnect from nature. He contends that the practice of adjusting clocks is fundamentally at odds with natural rhythms. The shift to summer time is, in his view, an unwise desire rooted in alienation from the natural world.

Estonian semiotician Kalevi Kull has put forward a thought-provoking argument: the conventional practice of switching to summer time is not merely an inconvenience — it is a symbol of modern society's growing estrangement from nature.

Kull points out that the clock, as a human invention, imposes an artificial framework on time that bears little relation to the rhythms of the natural world. When we shift our clocks forward each spring, we are not simply saving daylight — we are declaring that human convenience takes precedence over the biological and ecological cycles that have governed life on Earth for millennia.

Nature's rhythm vs. human clocks

The Estonian academic argues that living beings, including humans, are deeply embedded in natural time — shaped by sunrise, sunset, seasons, and the slow turn of the planet. To arbitrarily override these signals with a manmade schedule is, according to Kull, a form of self-imposed disconnection.

This is not merely a philosophical concern. Research across Europe and beyond has repeatedly shown that the transition to summer time disrupts sleep patterns, affects mental health, and can even contribute to a short-term increase in cardiovascular events. The body, it seems, agrees with the critics of clock-shifting.

A call to reconnect

Kull's argument ultimately calls on society to reconsider its relationship with natural time. Rather than bending our schedules to suit industrial or economic habits, he suggests that we would be wiser to realign ourselves with the world as it actually exists — with the light, the dark, and the turning of the seasons. In his view, abandoning the clock-change ritual would be a small but meaningful step back toward nature.