As long-term readers of this blog will know, around this time of year, especially those gloomy days when the sun fails to poke through the leaden clouds, I get mild symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Not debilitating by any means, but enough to be noticed, enough to get me down, robbing me of my usual joie de vivre.
At long last I have worked out a partial solution (other than spending four months of the year in the Southern Hemisphere). It is to ignore the time change at the end of October.
Before the clocks went back, I'd go to sleep around 23:00 to 23:15, and wake up between 07:00 and 07:15.
This year, I have ignored the social hegemony of the clock and have kept to my natural, summer, rhythm - I go to sleep at the same time relative to the sun - not an hour later as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere does - and I wake at the same time relative to the sun.
This means being totally ready for bed at 21:45, and being asleep by 22:00-22:15. So I wake, naturally, at 06:00-06:15. And I must say, I'm finding this easier to achieve than I had thought just two weeks ago, when I wrote about the impending time change.
In the old days of having to get up to go to the office and of rigid TV schedules, this would have been impossible. That film I've wanted to see would have been on, starting at half past nine in the evening and ending 90 minutes later. Today of course, we can watch what we want, when we want to watch it. And do much of our work from home.
During the working week, I do my daily paces in daylight, as far as possible - any work that's needed for the following day can be done during the hours of darkness. Rather than working 9 till 5 (or even 8 till 4), I work until around 2pm, then go for a walk, return as it gets dark, and the work on until 7 or 8pm, as required.
So I am starting to become Master of My Own Time. Society proceeds at its own pace, I at mine. So I'm one hour ahead. Unless there's a Big Night Out (three so far since the time change, resulting in bedtimes past midnight), I'm sticking to this regime - and it works.
Late nights = higher blood pressure the following morning. That's clear from my regular blood pressure readings - an observation of cause and effect. That hour's time change can actually be dangerous if you just go with it.
At this latitude, the difference between day-length in midsummer and midwinter is nine hours. We oscillate between sixteen and half hours of daylight in late June and around seven and half hours in late December). Those daylight hours can be split into three and three-quarters after noon and three and three-quarters hours in the morning. Year-round summer time would keep it that way. But the autumn time change robs us of an hour of afternoon daylight, adding it on in the morning. Frankly, being by nature an owl rather than a lark, that's not good for me. I really don't give a stuff at what time the sun rises, rarely being up to observe this phenomenon. But a late sunset - and lots of evening daylight - is what I crave.
As I wrote, the concept of midday being halfway between sunrise and sunset is naturally ordained. It is at noon the sun is at the zenith of its daily course, throwing its shortest shadow of the day, whatever the time of year. Midnight is noon's polar opposite, being halfway between sunset and sunrise.
Historically, our northern European forebears would have slept longer in midwinter, going to bed a few candles after sunset, waking up with the sun, but with a longer interval between their first and second sleeps [see here]. And yet since electricity lit up our lives, we have shifted to a different circadian rhythm that the one set by the sun. We cherish our leisure hours - we like to play sports on summer evenings until 9pm, eat dinner al fresco on warm nights, stay up late to watch TV; our daily routines are out of sync with the solar day. The midsummer day starts early, even with the time change, the sun rises in Warsaw at quarter past four. Yet convention, society, employers, TV schedules, have determined that those daylight hours are less valuable that the evening ones.
Another tip I have is roller blinds, which I had installed on the działka earlier this year. They completely block out daylight, allowing me to sleep in way past sunrise in midsummer. Back in Jeziorki, dropping the blinds early, switching on several low-mounted, dim lights, creates a warm, cosy mood and cuts out that most depressing time of day, around dusk, when what little daylight there is ebbs away.
This is, for the Northern Hemisphere, the busiest time of year. Racing towards Xmas - get everything done, budgets achieved, new budgets drawn up - before the Xmas party season starts. Now there is no historical basis for stating that Joshua ben Joseph, a Christos of Nazareth, was born in late December. The early Christian Church took that decision in the 4th century AD, probably hitchhiking on the pagan festivals of Sol Invictus and Yule. It makes sense to celebrate the passing of the shortest day and earliest sunset, the returning Light. Working hard takes your mind off the gloom and dismalness going on outside during the run-up to the contemporary materialist feast of Xmas.
Anyway.
It's now quarter to nine - quarter to ten in old money - and I will soon be getting ready for bed, ready to rise tomorrow, shortly after six. So far, so good. I'm coping. And at the last weekend of March, I intend to return to the summer routine - going to sleep around 23:00, and rising around 07:00.
Unless I've morphed into a lark before then.
UPDATE 24 November: Ten days later and I'm sticking to this new routine. I'm fine with going to bed at ten and waking up around 6:15.
UPDATE October 2023: I came across this research pointing to a link between eye colour and seasonal affective disorder - people with blue eyes are less prone to it, which explains why latitude alone doesn't necessarily determine susceptibility to SAD. And this study from the British Medical Journal suggests that there's another danger with time change at the other end - heart attacks and stroke increase significantly after the clocks go forward in spring. (Again, going to bed an hour later and waking up an hour later could be an answer.) Time to stop fiddling with the clocks!
This time four years ago:
Poland's dream of a superconnector hub
This time five years ago:
The magic of superzoom
This time nine years ago:
Welcome to Lemmingrad
This time 11 years ago:
Dream highway
This time 12 years ago:
The Days are Marching
This time 14 years ago:
First snow, 2007
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