Today I bought "sunlight"

Over the last few weeks it's been getting darker and darker. Today we had around 3 hours of the sun above the horizon (which equates to a long sunrise that merges into a long sunset), and in less than a week the sun will stop rising over the mountains completely, and we won't see it again for 2 months. This also means that I've been waking up to darkness every morning, and coming home to darkness every evening, for a while now. In the beginning, it didn't seem to be doing much to me, but over the last week I've been getting more and more tired, it's been getting significantly more difficult to wake up, and this morning getting myself out of bed was like trying to drag a disgruntled cat out of its favourite box. Granted, it was Monday morning, but I decided that it was time to do something about it. It seems quite common here that people buy daylight lamps, which provide doses of sunlight-like light, and which are supposed to combat seasonal affective disorder (SAD). So to kill two birds with one stone, I went out and bought this...

This is an alarm clock light that simulates a sunrise, so that you calmly wake to brilliant white 'sunny' light gently washing over your bedroom... at least that's what the box said. I have a feeling that tomorrow morning I'll wake feeling mildly blinded... but at least I'll be awake. The box also said this "wakeup experience" would "improve my mood and leave me energized"... fantastic! That should help me deal with this wonderful weather we're having that hovers around 0 degrees, so that precipitation style swings from snow, to rain, to hail, including everything in between. And which causes the ground surface to change from wonderful fluffy snow, to slushy mush, to a shiny polished icy layer of pain, then it snows, and the cycle starts over. Maybe waking up properly will improve my balance... maybe that's wishful thinking and I should just drink more coffee.