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Being in the Chicago area, the sun goes down about 4:30 right now where I live. Typically I have been leaving work at 4 and getting home about 4:25, meaning right at sunset. I find it so depressing to get home from work as the sun is going down.
I've actually adjusted a couple things in my daily schedule ever since the time change. I've started showering right when I wake up instead of after getting home from work. My work is sometimes physical and usually involves sweating in the summertime, so that's why I'd just shower when I got home. But not much sweating in the winter so I figure save those 15 minutes for daylight to enjoy after work. I've also started coming home a half hour to an hour earlier and just bringing a little work home if there is any left to do.
Anyone else adjusting their schedules at all to compensate?
Not at all. I don't have SAD or anything resembling it. I used to work 3rd shift last winter and barely saw any sunlight at all. But, then again, I'm an astronomy buff; so I live for the night, not day. To me, the day sky is just a boring blue dome with clouds in it and a bright, yellow orb. The night is the window to the universe, IMO
The sunset, twilight, and night sky are beautiful to behold, and I like driving when it gets dark early and stays dark late. Why would I want flat blinding daylight all the time when I could have the beauty of twilight and a window to the larger universe for a great portion of my waking day? Even when it's cloudy it is often beautiful - there's nothing like deep twilight reflecting off of variegated stratocumulus clouds or a moon peeking through other types of cloud cover, and rain/snow in headlights and streetlights has a totally different (and totally awesome) look and feel to it than it does in daylight, especially if it is windy.
As for my personal schedule, when it becomes colder and darker I actually become more active, go outside and exercise more often, start fires in my fire pit most evenings, stargaze, and exhibit more interest in the weather and nature in general. I also tend to wake up earlier and get to bed earlier, partly due to the better health and partly due to snow watching*. The darkest quarter of the year is when I come into my element.
*Pre-dawn is usually the best time to observe snow falling and the snow already on the ground, although on select nights I have two sleeps and do my snow watching in the hours surrounding midnight. As a lark, that's the closest I come to night-owl behavior.
Strange concept, I'd say the night is the window to more stratus clouds. Or maybe that's a Western Europe thing?
Must be a Paris or France thing, the skies in England and Germany tend to clear up at night, and get cloudy again during morning. Here, the sky is clear more often at night than day, and it is pretty sunny here during the day
I can't stand the months of December and January here, where the sun rises at 9:30 am and sets at 4:30 pm. Besides, most days are cloudy and snowy, so there's very, very little sunshine. On those rare sunny days, the temperature is so cold (-25 C to -40 C) and the sunshine feels so tepid that it feels like you're on a mission to some alien planet that is situated far away from its star.
I visit my in-laws, who live in a temperate maritime climate, for one month, and my parents, who live in a subtropical desert climate, for another month. It definitely helps make the winter feel shorter.
When I'm back in February, the days are longer and warmer, and temperatures are generally headed upward. Around here, December is the second-coldest month of the year, so we don't have too much seasonal lag in winter.
I don't mind the longer hours of darkness. I'm happier when it's dark. I'm in a better mood at this time of year and tend to get depressed during the summer.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I leave home at 5:30am in the dark and get home at about 4:30pm, not quite dark yet but will be soon. I get around it by spending most of my lunch break outside walking along the waterfront near my office, rain or shine. In summer it's light when I leave and until almost 11pm on the longest days when the weather is nice so I have something to look forward to.
Besides, most days are cloudy and snowy, so there's very, very little sunshine.
Saskatoon averages 86.5 hours of sunshine in December. Most of Europe is cloudier in winter.
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