4.15pm and it's pitch dark - where has the light gone?

[PineappleDanish]

Hate this time of year. It started getting dark around 2.30pm. Pitch dark by 4.15pm.

Won't be daylight again until 8.30am tomorrow morning. It's lashing rain outside and is forecast to do similar for most of the week.

Winter can fuck off. Roll on the Solstice and at least the nights start getting shorter again.

@PineappleDanish I'll smother them with the bloody blanket 😈.

I’m with you OP, hate it.
I’m downing Vit D.
When I retire will definitely be taking out long leases abroad somewhere Sunny in Winter

Jumping in muddy puddles, hot baths and hot chocolate is so bloody twee.

I actually love hot baths but it is no substitute for sun.

When will people understand that those who hate the dark winter days and evenings won't be fixed by a hot bath and muddy puddles. We need some light.

Nothing beats real daylight. Going to work when it is dark and coming home when it is dark is depressing.

There's plenty of light here. My neighbour's glass box extension (no blinds) can probably be seen from the moon. I hate winter because this is all I can see when I look out of the windows.

When I'm working nights, I don't see any daylight for about 4 days. Go to work in the dark, still dark when I get in and then still dark when I get up. Luckily I don't suffer from SAD.

And at least I get some proper sleep! My blackout curtains still have gaps around the sides so thinking of Velcro strip on the wall when it's summer.

It's not sunshine as much as light. I'd be delighted with an overcast day which was still bright. Or one of those days which everyone romanticises about - crisp and bright, frosty and icy but winter sunshine. That's not what we're getting, we're getting Atlantic front after Atlantic front, wet, windy and comparatively mild.

Hooray - tomorrow is forecast to be bright and sunny in Glasgow. But the sun's not up until 8.34 and sets at 15.44. I am at work from 9am to 3pm tomorrow in an office without many windows. I will maybe get 20 minutes of daylight if I can escape from the office for a coffee.

So depressing.

We need permanent summer time; it wouldn't be as bad then.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47704345

Well said U2ontheedge
I need light
Proper daylight
All the twee cosy shit won't energise me or stop my mood dropping off a cliff
Roll on spring till then I will carry on grabbing some daylight when I can and downing the vitamin D

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3728268-Clocks-going-back-SAD-and-The-Dark

Come here for support and join us

It's not for much longer. Just two weeks and it'll start getting noticeably brighter again.

All you can do is keep on doing what you can, eating right, vitamins, blue toned light and it'll start getting better. Especially if you make a point of being outside in daylight, even cold, wet and miserable daylight, as near the middle of the day as possible. I do it come rain or shine and it really does have a positive effect (I'm at work before sunrise and don't leave until after sunset at the earliest and have to rely totally upon shitty fluorescent lighting throughout the day as my office has little natural light).

DP has always been completely poleaxed by SAD every year from October, but this year, with all the things we've been hitting it with, he's only just blipping now - the most useful thing in his opinion, has been the unbreakable rule that You Go Outside For At Least 30 Minutes In Daylight. Every day, no excuses - if it's pissing down, wear a coat and take an umbrella. If it's cold, wear a coat and a warmer hat. If it's busy - do 3 bouts of ten minutes each. But you must be outside. That and opening the curtains and windows every single day to catch every bit of light and fresh air going.

I love it but then I love the changing seasons. I love spring too, and summer and autumn, all for different reasons. 😊. I’m sitting in front of a lovely log fire now, with a glass of wine, listening to the dog snoring and looking at festive recipes. In a few weeks, I’ll be looking forward to the spring bulbs coming up and thinking what to plant in the garden next year. And where to go on holiday in the summer!

Oh an like a PP I go to work in the dark/half dark and return in the dark and there are no windows
I'm lucky if I manage a quick break outside and lately it's mainly been pissing down
How anyone could find that for weeks on end anything other than depressing and energy sapping is beyond me

I love it. It's cosy, even if our house is quite cold with the heating on as low as 15! Soft, warm lights, wrapped up in my fleecy PJs under the blanket on the settee listening to the wind and rain outside. Nothing better, especially when you've been out in that weather and can now sit with a nice hot brew knowing you don't have to go back out anywhere!

I hate it.
I checked the calendar earlier to make sure it was only two weeks until the solstice.

I've carried on cycling to work this winter. Usually I switch to the bus. It's hard work getting out the house but I feel better for it. Like a pp said, I think getting any light at all, even if it's not very strong, makes a difference.

I don’t mind it too much, but I came to join in on the hate snuggling and fairy lights train.

I live on a farm. There’s fuck all cosy about being on a sofa under the blanket listening to the rain. Listening to the rain makes me wonder and worry how much more flooding tomorrow will bring. Listening to the wind means in the morning, there may well be repair work to barns etc.
And I can’t just abandon the day to the safety of the sofa. Livestock. And livestock are much harder bloody work in the winter- mud, wet, DARK.

As someone who grew up in a rural/farming community well said Balanchine
The farming world is one that never stops regardless of the weather and can be bleak and exhausting in the winter

We need permanent summer time; it wouldn't be as bad then

Except in the North where it would be dark until around 10am in winter...

I hear you, I’m in the NW and it’s bloody rained since September. That coupled with darkness at 3.30 is just shit.
I don’t wAnt a blanket or fairy lights, I want a sunny day and some daylight, not bleak grey rain.

I absolutely hate dark evening's. I have seen my mood change dramatically since the early evening darkness set in. I feel so down.

I love the long bright evening's, the only thing I don't like to about it is neighbour's kids seem to turn into screeching banshees till 11pm in the garden and the adults turn into raving alcoholics partying 7 nights a week.

These dark evening's are not 'cosy' people who tell me this give me the rage, same with snuggling and hot chocolate. I can't understand why some people feel December is the month to drink hot chocolate! You can buy it all year round! I've inlaws posting pics of feckin hot chocolate! People inviting me out for hot chocolate! People with their snuggling pics online, I want to ban the words snuggling and hot chocolate!

I've every light on in the house and it still feels miserable. Dh goes out in the dark and comes home in the dark, his building has no windows, he doesn't get outside as canteen in the building, he said it doesn't bother him, but I noticed he's a bit more snappy lately, during summer months he use to ring all happy planning something out in the evening, he'd come home all chirpy and full of energy, now, he just comes in soaking wet, tired, no happiness and in bed by 9/10pm.

Hate winter !

It is still dark and lashing with rain outside however warm it is inside. I don't want to be "cosy" and sparkly lights are no substitute for daylight. I don't think I've seen strong daylight since last Sunday. A week. Just gloom. If we didn't have winter, then we wouldn't have such long light nights in summer. Just a whole year of it not being light enough in the evening for long enough to do anything.

We need permanent summer time; it wouldn't be as bad then

Nonsense. You can change the time on the clock to whatever you like. But tomorrow in Glasgow, the official length of "day" is 7 hours and 9 minutes. It doesn't matter if the day starts at 6am, 10am, midday, 4pm - you are still only ever getting 7 hours and 9 minutes of day.

Really don't want permanent summer time. That would mean sunrise at 09.31 tomorrow in Edinburgh.

Another one here counting down the days to solstice

All together now,
"Ring out those bells..."

switching to permanent summer time was the subject of a campaign and a bill. Talked out by Jacob Rees Mogg who by the look of him never goes outside anyway.

yes, not good in Scotland but in a long thin country someone loses out.