In winter, especially December and January, daylight is anything but equal across the world. Your state of mind often mirrors that imbalance.
Yes, winter can drag down your mood.
A lack of daylight can lower serotonin levels in the body, a shift that is known to contribute to depressive symptoms, according to the US medical centre Mayo Clinic.
While as little as 10-30 minutes of daylight can help your body produce vitamin D, lift your mood and even support better sleep, says Cleveland Clinic.
While some global cities bask in generous stretches of sunshine, others are left with barely a glimmer of light from the sky.
Incidentally winter is not the only time when places lack sunshine -- Dhaka and Chongqing are severely deprived of sunshine in the monsoon.
But which places, as per www.weather-and-climate.com, get the least sunshine in winter?
1. Moscow: 0.6 Hours A Day
Deep winter settles over the Russian capital, where sun barely clocks half an hour on average in people's days in December, going up to an hour in January.
Winters are bitterly cold, with temperatures typically hovering between 9°F and –3°F, making the season feel especially harsh and unforgiving.
2. Riga: Around 0.8 Hours A Day
Latvia's seaside city and capital lives in darkness in winter receving less than an hour of sunshine on most days in December.
3. Minsk: Around 0.9 Hours A Day
In the Belarus capital, December unfolds with prolonged dimness, with the sun appearing for little more than half an hour each day in December (and 90 minutes in January).
4. Warsaw: About 0.9 Hours A Day
Poland's capital sees brief sunlight, averaging just less than an hour of sunshine in December before dusk quickly returns, increasing to 1.3 hours in January.
5. Kyiv: Around 1 Hour A Day
The Ukrainian capital endures dark winter skies, with the sun managing to poke its head out for about an hour a day at best. In January it goes up to about 1.4 hours.
6. Stockholm: Around 1.06 Hours A Day
The elegant Nordic city makes do with a little over an hour of sunlight per day in December's darkest stretch.
7. Berlin: Around 1.5 Hours A Day
Germany's capital fares only slightly better, with low clouds and early nights limiting sunshine to about 90 minutes daily in December and 2 hours in January.
8. Ushuaia: Around 1.4 Hours A Day
In the southern hemisphere, winter comes mid-year with the least daylight hours happening in June.
In Argentina's province of Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, 1,100 km from the Antarctica peninsula, has declared itself to be the world's southernmost city with its motto being: Ushuaia, end of the world, beginning of everything. It gets a tiny fraction of sunshine in June.
9. Punta Arenas: Around 2.4 Hours A Day
Chile's southernmost city, also claiming to be the world's southernmost city too, Punta Arenas sees about 2.4 hours of sun in June.
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