If you’ve noticed the days have become significantly longer of late, you’re not wrong. “Significant” is somewhat relative here, with incremental differences each day, but it can make a big difference.
The sunlight does you good. The sun on your skin allows your body to make vitamin D, an essential nutrient that “shows favorable effects in many organs and plays a significant role in the maintenance of general health,” according to the National Institutes of Health.
But daylight also can boost your mood quite a bit. You may find that the more there is of it, the happier you feel. In fact, one of the treatments for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression, is light therapy.
In that treatment, the patient is exposed to a light box that delivers bright light for a period of time.
Time is what it’s all about. The shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, according to National Geographic, is right at December 21 or 22. Looking at the key sunlight points just a scant three weeks later in this region from which I’m writing, which is western Connecticut:
Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023
Dawn: 6:44 a.m.
Sunrise: 7:15 a.m.
Sunset: 4:27 p.m.
Dusk: 4:58 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024
Dawn: 6:48 a.m.
Sunrise: 7:18 a.m.
Sunset: 4:44 p.m.
Dusk: 5:15 p.m.
Those are the figures from www.suncalc.org. Alright, so dawn and sunrise happened at about the same time, but the key is that sunset occurred a full 17 minutes later, and dusk — until which there is still some light — also was 17 minutes later. There’s a quarter hour of therapy for you, a quarter hour less night that you’re likely to perceive, perhaps almost subconsciously.
If you’re someone who’s affected by winter’s lack of sunlight, the good news is, the worst of it is over. From here on out, the days continue to lengthen till late June with the start of summer.
Soak it up!
Content © Aaron G. Marsh
Lead photo by Jill Wellington, Pexels
I Do Not Like Mondays 
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