Bothered by darkness in the north or south of earth in winter

[NekoMaster]

Anyone here that lives North or south enough that daytime is short in the winter or parts of year?

This time of the year in Canada, its daytime from 7-8 am to 4-5pm, and then its dark as night.

Its rather depressing. This time of the year I'm rather depressed, darker thoughts come out, I hate the winter, I hate the dark, I hate the cold.... I wish I lived somewhere else other then Canada

Any one else here deal with this? This darkness and/or depression when winter comes around?

[EXTspotter]

It is similar in the UK - where I live today sunrise was 8.02 and set is 16.00.

I don't enjoy it but it doesn't generally affect me too badly, however my partner does get very down in the winter. If you think it might be something like seasonal affective disorder, maybe you should get a lightbox; a few of my friends have these and whilst sitting in front of it for some time daily is a bit annoying, they feel it has helped improve their outlook somewhat. We have a dawn simulator alarm clock as well which has helped as it wakes you up gradually unlike a normal alarm, which can also itself cause some negative or stressful effects on the user.

Hope that this may help you and know that you are not alone with your problem.

[FooBar]

I find myself sleeping an hour longer than during summer. Seems to work for me. I always hated it going to work in the dark and return home again in the dark. Now I go to work when it's already light(ish). While that still doesn't give me any free time when it's light, it seems to help.

The good news is that in a week and a bit days will be getting longer again. Well, daylight that is.

[Chrill]

This time of the year in Canada, its daytime from 7-8 am to 4-5pm, and then its dark as night.

You lucky sod. The sun rises around 8:30am and it's dark again around 3pm. It's very depressing.

Tomorrow's sunrise in Stockholm:
8:37 AM

And the sunset:
2:47 PM

Then again, it could be worse yet. Here's the town of Kiruna, far up north in Sweden:
Sunrise:
11:29 AM

Sunset:
11:57 AM

That's a good 28 minutes of sunshine.

[FooBar]

That's a good 28 minutes of sunshine.

If you're lucky and it's not clouded over

[Pyoro]

I always hated it going to work in the dark and return home again in the dark..

Yeah, that's the worst part of winter, imo. Just so unmotivating - get home, everything's dark and cold. :/

Although this year has been incredibly blessed with sun and blue skies so far - doesn't help after sunset, but at least while the sun is up it's actually nice. Haven't even gotten out any scarfs. Still +7°C today for example, instead of the more usual -something°C for this time of the year. Easily 10-15°C warmer than in other years. ^^;

[FooBar]

Haven't even gotten out the winter coat. But I do wear gloves when on the bicycle. I'm weird.

[YNM]

Get to here (the equator) I suppose ? Fire's over (really), and it's not that raining yet (El Nino surely takes it's tolls at both sides of the globe isn't it ?). Mostly cloudy though.

I myself want to feel what it's like up there...

[AndersI]

I've got more or less the same times as Stockholm, the worst day will be 21:st of December when we have only 6h2min of daytime. It is definitely better if we have snow at this time, as all the white makes the dark lighter, but nothing like that this year (the beginning of December was warmer than Midsummers day this year! [which says a lot about Swedish summer, but anyway...])

And yes, going to work in dark, sitting inside all day and then going home in the dark is quite depressing. But in a month we will (probably) have snow, and the days are longer again, and everything will be fine...

[Chrill]

I'm not quite sure where in Sweden you live, Anders?

[Dave]

Been an extremely mild winter thus far in the south of England - daytime temperatures have rarely dipped below 10 degrees Celsius.

Different in the north, of course - quite a lot of snow has fallen over the last 48 hours.

[NekoMaster]

Lately here in Ontario, Canada, its been cloudy and gloomy, and a touch rainy, So even when its daytime it still feels rather dark.

As I right this now, its only going on 4pm (16:00) but with the cloud cover it feels more like night time already even though theres still a touch of daylight left. Give it another 10-20 minutes and it'll probably be dark again.

I find lately one of the few things keeping me happy is lots of coffee and lots of booze. This year winter is just really getting to me with the cold weather and lack of light

[AndersI]

I'm not quite sure where in Sweden you live, Anders?

Eskilstuna, so only about 100km away from Stockholm.

[NekoMaster]

I'm not quite sure where in Sweden you live, Anders?

Eskilstuna, so only about 100km away from Stockholm.

Btw, unrelated kinda to this topic, why is your avatar a lego piece?

[Chrill]

Btw, unrelated kinda to this topic, why is your avatar a lego piece?

That, even I can answer. Anders is a master Lego builder and a proper Lego scholar. There's a topic somewhere here in the Off-Topic where he has posted some photos

EDIT: Found it!

http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48313

[Chris]

Been an extremely mild winter thus far in the south of England - daytime temperatures have rarely dipped below 10 degrees Celsius.

Different in the north, of course - quite a lot of snow has fallen over the last 48 hours.

Depends how far north . Up in Leeds we've also had a very mild winter so far, warmish temperatures and quite rainy. But yes up in Durham (50 or so miles further north?) they've had a load of snow

[NekoMaster]

Speaking of mild winter, while its technically not winter yet (Not till December 21) its been rather mild here as well, daytime highs getting up to 11-14*c

Though it sucks that its usually cloudy, even as I type this, its rather cloudy today.

Part of the reason I hate winter so much and brings me down is because its cloudy, no blue skies like you see in the summer

[Dave]

I don't have SAD, but it's always duller in the winter..

[kamnet]

This weekend in my neck of the woods it was 68'F / 20'C and mostly sunny. In many years past we've already been below freezing and had several inches of snow. Winter of '78 was the worst, winter of '96 was also pretty awful.

[AndersI]

Btw, unrelated kinda to this topic, why is your avatar a lego piece?

Two reasons:

1. I'm an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego), part of Swebrick (http://www.swebrick.se), a LUG (LEGO User Group), and I like building/constructing with LEGO

2. I like that face, I feel it gives a good approximation of what I feel many times when reading the 'net.

So, I'm using that avatar on most forums where I take part, also serious ones.