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Why Spaniards eat dinner so late

A 1940 decree moved Spain’s clocks, but daily habits stayed on solar time. Here’s why dinner in Spain rarely starts before 9 p.m.

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6 min read

Inside a tapas bar in Madrid, with bottles hanging from the ceiling and wooden stools
Photo by Maria Voss on Unsplash

In Spain, dinner usually starts somewhere between 9 and 11 p.m. The reason isn’t only cultural: on the night of March 16-17, 1940, a decree from Francisco Franco’s government moved Spain’s clocks forward an hour, aligning the country with Nazi Germany and occupied Europe. It never got reversed, and Spanish routines stayed put on the old schedule, even as the clock read something else.

A time zone that never went back

Before 1940, Spain ran on the same time as Portugal and the UK, close to Greenwich Mean Time and close to the sun, since Madrid sits less than 4 degrees west of the Greenwich meridian. The 1940 decree put the country on Central European Time, the same zone as Germany, and the change became permanent in 1942. The Canary Islands, also Spanish, were left out and still run an hour behind the mainland, a gap Spanish radio flags when it gives the time with the phrase “una hora menos en Canarias.”

After the war ended, nobody undid it. Portugal, a next-door neighbor at almost the same longitude, runs on Greenwich time today. The two Iberian capitals sit a few hundred kilometers apart, yet Madrid runs an hour ahead of Lisbon. In 2013, a subcommittee of the Spanish Congress formally recommended studying a return to Greenwich time, calling more than 70 years in the wrong zone an “anomaly.” The report asked the government for an economic impact study, and the proposal went nowhere.

The clock moved. The body didn’t.

Spain shares this with Iceland, which never changes its clocks and also lives with them running ahead of the sun. When the 1940 decree took effect, nobody adjusted lunch or dinner to a new position of the sun. What changed was the number on the clock face. A lunch that used to happen around 1 p.m. solar time got relabeled 2 p.m. A dinner eaten as the sun went down, near 8 p.m., became 9.

More than eight decades later, the habit holds: a typical Spanish lunch now runs from 2 to 4 p.m., and dinner from 9 to 11 p.m. By the clock, that’s late. By the sun, the gap with the neighbors is much smaller than it looks.

The latest fight: ending the clock changes

The debate over Spain’s clock didn’t stop in 2013. In October 2025, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took a proposal to the European Union to end the twice-yearly clock changes from 2026, according to the news site Moncloa.com. His argument: changing the clocks twice a year “no longer makes sense,” because it saves little energy and disrupts sleep.

The idea isn’t new in Brussels. In 2019, the European Parliament voted to scrap daylight saving time, but the proposal stalled in the Council of the EU, where governments have to agree. Until they do, Spain follows EU rules: in 2026, clocks go back on the last Sunday of October, the 25th.

Even if the changes end, the time zone question remains. Staying on summer time permanently would push Spain even further from the sun; staying on winter time would keep it on Germany’s time. Returning to Greenwich time, Portugal’s, is a separate debate.

The split workday matters more than the time zone

The time zone accounts for the first hour of lateness, but not the rest of it. Most of that comes from the jornada partida, the split workday built around a long midday break for lunch, still the main meal for many Spaniards. That structure pushes the end of the workday into the evening, and dinner further back from there.

The siesta often blamed for that midday gap turns out to be more myth than routine: a 2016 survey found 58% of Spaniards never nap after lunch. ARHOE, the national commission that has pushed for years to rationalize Spanish working hours, argues the real problem isn’t the nap. It’s a workday that ends too late and drags dinner, and sleep, closer to midnight.

The cost is sleep

The numbers on sleep back that up. Data from the Sleep Cycle app puts average sleep in Spain at 7 hours 13 minutes a night, less than in France, Ireland or the UK, and ahead of only Italy in that same comparison. A sleep specialist interviewed by The Local sums up the pattern this way: Germans and Spaniards wake up at roughly the same time, but Spaniards go to bed later.

What this means for visitors

  • Don’t expect dinner at 7 p.m. outside tourist zones. Local dinnertime runs from 9 to 11 p.m., and many restaurants are set up around it.
  • Use tapas hour to bridge the gap. Bars serve small plates and drinks in the early evening, which covers the stretch between lunch and a late dinner well.
  • Book ahead for dinner at popular local spots, especially in Madrid and Barcelona on weekends.
  • Ask at your hotel what’s usual in town. Mealtimes vary from place to place, and locals know where to eat earlier.

FAQ

What time do Spaniards eat dinner?

Usually between 9 and 11 p.m. A typical lunch starts between 2 and 4 p.m.

Why is Spain on Germany’s time zone?

Because of a 1940 decree by Francisco Franco’s government, which moved the clocks forward an hour to line up with Germany and occupied Europe. The change was never reversed.

Do Spaniards take a siesta every day?

No. A 2016 survey found that 58% of Spaniards never nap after lunch.

Will Spain stop changing the clocks?

Spain’s government asked the EU in 2025 to end clock changes. The decision needs agreement among EU countries, and in 2026 the changes still apply.

Where can I eat before 9 p.m. in Spain?

At tapas bars, which serve snacks and drinks in the early evening. In tourist areas, some restaurants also open earlier.

Next time a waiter in Madrid raises an eyebrow at a 7 p.m. dinner order, remember that by the sun’s clock, you showed up right on time. It’s the wall clock that disagrees.

Sources

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