in which I discover latitude

[ursula]

When one is reading an article in the New York Times on seasonal affective disorder, and playing the matching game one plays with horoscopes ("Ten hours of sleep a night? Fondness for carbohydrates? Overuse of the verb 'to hibernate'? Why yes, that DOES sound like me!"), and pauses to think that one would not be terribly harmed by shifting one's alarm earlier to coincide with winter sunrise, and might even derive salutary effects, it is rather depressing to realize that this would constitute an official shift of approximately fifteen minutes.

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

10 hours of sleep a night? Heck, that happens year round...

I think shifting my morning wake-up time to coincide with "sunrise" here would quite probably make things more depressing. At least, if it's already overcast and grey when I wake up, I can comfort myself with "but I slept late, maybe the sun shone earlier." But if I wake up when it's still dark, then I'm guaranteed to know when the sun never comes out all day long...

[ursula]

Mmm, well, this is Seattle. I'm not going to fret about whether it's overcast ;)

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

Aren't you jealous of all those people in nice southern regions, like Vladivostok?

[(Anonymous)]

I hear they like short skirts.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

Russian girls in short skirts?

Have you been reading your spam again?

[ursula]

More like reminiscing about an old roommate.

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose I could get an introduction?

[ursula]

We're not in touch.

[countess-e.livejournal.com]

Coffee! Cheap, legal, stimulant of choice, does not leave unsightly track marks! I figured that's why there are so many caffeine hounds up this way, it's so we can stay awake through the winter and spring.

[ursula]

I moved to the Pacific Northwest at 11 and started drinking coffee a year later. But that just makes me a good approximation of a really spacey human!

[glowing-fish.livejournal.com]

Yohimbe, dude, yohimbe.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

What I find helps -- and I do have a diagnosis of mild SAD, I'm not just from around here -- is lots of strong light in the morning, (ramping up is fine, and using my light box is best) and then dimming light over the course of the evening. Computer screens, sadly, are major emitters of blue light, which tells your eyeballs it's daytime; dimming the screen helps a lot, but I try not to stay on the computer very long starting at 9 or so (2-3 hours before sleeping).

[ursula]

Huh. Interesting about the blue light.