I was thinking about prayer times (Muslims pray 5 times a day, within certain time intervals), and then about how Ramadan is slowly moving into the summer time.
Note: The prayers are in reverse order of their appearance on the graph.
This shows the times for prayer throughout the year. The legend names the Arabic names for the prayers, with Imsaak being when you would stop eating before Fajr time during Ramadan, and Sunrise and Sunset being just that. This graph shows that in the summer, fasting begins around 2:30AM and ends around 7:30PM (Fasting is from Imsaak to Maghrib). That leaves 7 hours of eating during the night, most of which will likely be spent sleeping.
Every year, Ramadan moves 11 days earlier through the solar year, due to being based on a lunar calendar. This means that in roughly 33 years, a Muslim fasts during every day of a solar year. This also means that each day of a solar year is fasted during for a period of 3 years (and a few only 2). So looking at the hardest day of year, a midsummer day (June 22), Muslims will likely be fasting through that for 3 years in a row.
Due to the predictable 11-day-a-year cycle, I predict that fasting will be at its hardest next in 2015 until 2017 or 2018. I might sit down and do the math later to get accurate predictions at to the longest day and which Ramadans will include it.
To all my fellow Muslims (and future Muslims) out there: Good luck! Insh'Allah we can make it through these years with the hardest fasting days and of course the years before and after. See you on the other side of the year!