[Icare dixit]

Are days too short?

I consider buying a house in Russia or maybe Finland, and Chili or Argentina, just to have longer days. But it might be too cold in the north. If Schotland is anything to go by. Or I should maybe just sleep and stay up twice as long. Maybe that works if you get used to it. But I don't always have this problem.

Too many days, too often, I need considerable time to shake depression and become functional only to find that I could or should go on for longer, but I wouldn't be able to sleep enough hours if I did.

My mood can change daily. If it's more out of control, more or less severely changing. If it doesn't change daily than in some ways it's better but sometimes worse in this way, when more severely depressed.

But now it changes daily, not too severely but it's complicated for the aforementioned reason. I have less of a problem when just depressed, but still the problem that I spend a disproportionate amount of time becoming functional.

It can end with depression as well as start with it, but often a more or less manic and depressive period are longer than can be fit into one day.

I can't be the only one who has such problems with proportionality. At least while depressed for a longer period.

[Skeezyks]

Days can become very long in the upper Midwest of the U.S.A. during the summer. It's daylight from around 6 AM to around 9 PM . The Skeezyks prefers the dark, cold & short days of winter...

[fishin fool]

The longer summer days and the sunshine do me a world of good.
Longer days sound good.

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Are days too short?

I consider buying a house in Russia or maybe Finland, and Chili or Argentina, just to have longer days.... longer than can be fit into one day.

I can't be the only one who has such problems with proportionality. At least while depressed for a longer period.

If you know Scotland you have a very good idea of what short winter days are like. The day length and light levels are a fraction of those of Southern England, and in summer despite it not really getting truly dark at night the level of the sun in the sky is so low in the day it is still pretty dark.

I suppose that is why so many Scots whinge and moan and wander aorund with a great big chip on their shoulder about the English. Let's hope when we quit the EU the Scots will form their own country and rejoin the EU - good luck with that.

Now if you could buy two houses, one in Finland and one in Argentina you need never have a winter at all.

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Days can become very long in the upper Midwest of the U.S.A. during the summer. It's daylight from around 6 AM to around 9 PM . The Skeezyks prefers the dark, cold & short days of winter...

You are way south - consider:

Des Moines 25 May
Daylight:
05:46 - 20:36
Total:14:50

London 25 May
Daylight:
04:55 - 21:00
Total:16:05

In winter:

Des Moines

Daylight:
07:33 - 16:44
Total:09:11

London 14 December
Daylight:
07:59 - 15:51
Total:07:52

Winters are pretty miserable here (come and join us), but consider Scotland:

14 December
Daylight:
08:41 - 15:25
Total:06:44

On the other hand in summer:

25 May:
Daylight:
04:31 - 21:40
Total:17:09

Uuugh

i am always commenting on " where has the day gone", or " is it the weekend all ready?", or " we're all ready half way through the year"

not sure a day goes by without me thinking something along those lines

seeing as i don't work though, i think the day is the perfect amount of time- i wouldn't want it any longer

[Wanderlust90]

Does anyone remember when you were a kid & a year was literally FOREVER. Summer holidays were an almost never ending adventure. Now I think back 10 years ago & I feel like it was only yesterday. The days are going faster & faster. I miss that haze of early youth.

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Are days too short?

I consider buying a house in Russia or maybe Finland, and Chili or Argentina, just to have longer days. But it might be too cold in the north. If Schotland is anything to go by. Or I should maybe just sleep and stay up twice as long. Maybe that works if you get used to it. But I don't always have this problem.

Um, I'm not quite sure you understand the concept of longer days. Days Vs Nights are proportionate to one another. As winter comes the nights get longer and the days shorter. Then as summer draws near the days get longer and the nights shorter. As you get closer to the poles the more extreme this is; the north and south poles get sun one half the year and night the other half the year. Thus, the closer you are to the Equator the more even nights and days. The further away the harder it is on depression.

[Anxiousvalkyrie]

I'm currently sitting here, it's 10:30pm and still light outside and days will continue to get longer until the solstice in June. Such are summers in Sweden. Conversely, days during the winter are extremely short...and winter lasts a LONG time up here, or at leasts it seems to. If you want days of 20+ hours of daylight you have to be able to take the other part of year with 5 hours or less of daylight.

These drastic changes in daylight definitely affect you in a big way. Halfway through summer you'll be begging for black out shades to get a decent nights sleep and in the winter you'll be wishing for the sunlight.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by justafriend306

Um, I'm not quite sure you understand the concept of longer days. Days Vs Nights are proportionate to one another. As winter comes the nights get longer and the days shorter. Then as summer draws near the days get longer and the nights shorter. As you get closer to the poles the more extreme this is; the north and south poles get sun one half the year and night the other half the year. Thus, the closer you are to the Equator the more even nights and days. The further away the harder it is on depression.

I understand how it works. I just want more sun. So I spend all summers (i.e. half a year) near the right pole, at least.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by ManOfConstantSorrow

If you know Scotland you have a very good idea of what short winter days are like. The day length and light levels are a fraction of those of Southern England, and in summer despite it not really getting truly dark at night the level of the sun in the sky is so low in the day it is still pretty dark.

I suppose that is why so many Scots whinge and moan and wander aorund with a great big chip on their shoulder about the English. Let's hope when we quit the EU the Scots will form their own country and rejoin the EU - good luck with that.

Now if you could buy two houses, one in Finland and one in Argentina you need never have a winter at all.

Yes, I know Schotland and it gets cold at 5 pm or something, in the midst of the summer even. Sun or no sun. That's really amazing. I hope Finland will be different.

Edit:
To be honest, I only visit Schotland the beginning of August. Edinburgh Festival Fringe. But it get cold very quickly despite the sun.

I'm also not impressed by the amount of sun in the Midwest, sorry.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by Anxiousvalkyrie

I'm currently sitting here, it's 10:30pm and still light outside and days will continue to get longer until the solstice in June. Such are summers in Sweden. Conversely, days during the winter are extremely short...and winter lasts a LONG time up here, or at leasts it seems to. If you want days of 20+ hours of daylight you have to be able to take the other part of year with 5 hours or less of daylight.

These drastic changes in daylight definitely affect you in a big way. Halfway through summer you'll be begging for black out shades to get a decent nights sleep and in the winter you'll be wishing for the sunlight.

But is it warm and sunny all day or just sunny and just as cold, in the summer?

[Anxiousvalkyrie]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

But is it warm and sunny all day or just sunny and just as cold, in the summer?

Well, today it was 9 degrees (Celsius). You can't really expect any truly warm days until the end of May and even then it can be a crap shoot. We might get some 30 degree days in like July but usually not too many. You can expect maybe a few weeks of warm weather in the summer but it doesn't ever really get hot. (Unless you live in Southern Sweden and then you might get some longer stretches of warmth). Also consider a lot of days during the summer are cloudy, especially on the West coast. Overcast skies tend to make for milder days. If you're looking for days with lots of sun and warm weather you're not really going to get that in Sweden.

I have friends in Finland too, and they tend to have even cooler weather than we do in the summer, and their winters tend to be harsher as well.

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

I understand how it works. I just want more sun. So I spend all summers (i.e. half a year) near the right pole, at least.

Technically I suppose you want longer days. The amount of solar irradiation is very much lower the further from the equator that you go and hence lower temperatures.

Aberdeen has 4.52 in May, 0.32 in December - North of Moscow
London has 4.59, 0.6 in May and December respectively - well north of Winnipeg
Des Moines has 5.39, 1.64 - Similar latitude to Rome

Measured in kWh/m2/day onto a horizontal surface

Interesting that despite being very north the longer Aberdeen days in Scotland almost make up for the lower height of the sun in the sky.

Of course the surrounding ocean very much modifies the temperature so it seldom gets really hot in Atlantic Europe.

Source: Solar Irradiance Calculator - Useful Sun power tool

[Icare dixit]

Interesting. I thought about the ocean. How Scandinavia or Russia are probably bad ideas for that reason. It's too cold.

Hours of sun is more important to me than the temperature, but it's interesting how there's an almost perfect distribution of sun radiation. If not too far from the ocean. Aberdeen has a higher temperature than Finland, because it's nearer the ocean?

It's interesting how there are palm trees in Ireland near the Atlantic.

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Interesting. I thought about the ocean. How Scandinavia or Russia are probably bad ideas for that reason. It's too cold.

Hours of sun is more important to me than the temperature, but it's interesting how there's an almost perfect distribution of sun radiation. If not too far from the ocean. Aberdeen has a higher temperature than Finland, because it's nearer the ocean?

It's interesting how there are palm trees in Ireland near the Atlantic.

Scotland is further south than Finland, so Aberdeen will get more sun but the presence of the ocean will keep off the cold much better than Finland where they just have the Baltic sea and northern parts of that freeze in the winter

Northern Norway, much further north than Scotland, is cold but not as cold as Russia or Finland as the gulf stream washes past Norway and keeps off the worst cold.

Western areas of the British Isles are almost frost free even in Scotland.

[raspberrytorte]

There are palm trees in Ireland?

I live in the midwest. It is DEPRESSING in the winter! So... pretty much there's maybe, I don't know, four months out if the year where it's nice? Oh my god the weather mostly sucks.

Always talking about moving. If we lived somewhere sunny all the time we'd be so productive! It would be amazing.

Anyway, yeah days are too short. In order for me to get anything done I have to turn myself into a lunatic! I don't have any time. I have two hours every day where I'm not on everyone else's time.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by ManOfConstantSorrow

Scotland is further south than Finland, so Aberdeen will get more sun but the presence of the ocean will keep off the cold much better than Finland where they just have the Baltic sea and northern parts of that freeze in the winter

Northern Norway, much further north than Scotland, is cold but not as cold as Russia or Finland as the gulf stream washes past Norway and keeps off the worst cold.

Western areas of the British Isles are almost frost free even in Scotland.

I don't care about the winter. I'll be in Argentina. But that's all very interesting. It's rather difficult finding the right place. Scotland and Scandinavia are probably mostly too cold because of the reduced radiation. It would have to be Ireland. Ireland is nice.

And yes, there are palm trees. It's amazing what an ocean can do. Does the east coast of the US have palm trees? California has, I know that, so it must be west coasts and oceans. So that would mean I have to buy a house in Chile and Ireland.