Hello Darkness

Hello Darkness my old friend.  I know that is how the song goes but the dark, gray skies of winter have never been my friend.  I have struggled with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) for many years.  I remember when I was in Grad school I took part in a psychological study in which they had participants either sit in front of a sunlamp daily for a set amount of time or use a dawn simulator to wake up.  I was part of the study that used the dawn simulator and I have to say I used it for many years and it made a huge difference.  So much so that my high school students used to ask me  if I had forgotten to use my "happy lamp" if I was in a tired or cranky mood.  It really did make me feel differently to wake up to a naturally feeling, although simulated, dawn.  When teaching high school during the darkest days of winter I would wake up and leave for school in the dark and come home in the dark. And it truly did make me SAD.
Before coming to Berlin I worried A LOT about being too cold and hating the winter. I have to say I've been quite OK with the weather here so far this winter.  It is normally 5-10 degrees colder here than Seattle but it rains less and I've discovered that I hate wet more than I hate cold.  I've also discovered that crisp and cold is pretty nice actually.  I CANNOT believe I'm writing this.  I have notoriously hated the cold.  Anyway, I worried about the cold and I've been OK with that.  What I didn't worry about and should have was the darkness.  Berlin is so far north that we get 45 LESS minutes of daylight during the shortest of days than Seattle.  I felt like Seattle was so dark during the winter.  Thankfully, I wasn't aware of this fact when moving here because it may have deterred me.  Here are some other interesting stats.  The shortest day of the year, December 21st, Berlin has a day length of 7 hours and 39 minutes.  The longest day of the year here, June 21st, is 9 hours and 11 LONGER with a day length of 16 hours and 50 minutes!  Seattle has a shortest day length of 8 hours and 25 minutes and a longest day length of 15 hours 59 minutes.

My friend Bridget who lives in Berlin and also struggles with the darkness posted this graph the other day and it gives me so much hope.  Apparently from January 24th through February we gain 3-4 minutes of daylight every single day!!  We did celebrate the winter solstice knowing the days would now be getting longer but I had never broken it down to adding 3-4 minutes EVERY single day of day light.  It is now the end of January and I am noticing that it is still light, or at least somewhat light at 4:30PM.  We are making progress.  Sloooowwlly but surely.  Bring on the SUN and the nearly 17 hour day!