On the night of Saturday to Sunday, 25 October 2026, Bulgaria switches from summer to standard, or winter, time. At 4:00 am, clocks go back to 3:00 am, so people get an extra hour of sleep. Evenings will get dark earlier.
The clocks change on the same night across the rest of the EU. Phones, computers and smartwatches update automatically, while some electronic and analogue clocks need to be set by hand.
Bulgaria's clocks shift twice a year: on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. The last change was in March, when clocks moved forward an hour. The pattern has stayed the same for decades — forward in spring, back in autumn.
The idea is to make better use of daylight in the evenings during the brighter months, cutting down on artificial light. Over time, doubts have grown about how much the switch actually helps, and the EU has debated scrapping it for years.
In 2018, the European Commission ran a public survey, and most people who took part said they wanted to stop the seasonal clock change. The European Parliament later backed the idea too.
But EU countries could not agree on whether to stay on summer time or standard time permanently, so no final decision was ever made. Until there is one, the current system stays in place.