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Millions of Brits ‘don't see sunlight all day'

Dark mornings and long evenings mean many Brits only see daylight at weekends

Half of British workers only see daylight on their lunchbreak during the winter, according to a new study.

The dark mornings and even longer, darker nights mean most of us are now full-time ‘night owls'.

But worryingly, the study also found millions of workers who don't have a lunchbreak only see the sun on weekends, as the sun rises at 8.02am and disappears at 3.52pm.

The research revealed that whilst half of workers take a lunch break just to see daylight, the other half said they were too busy to take a midday break.

[Related: Five ways to cure Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)]

Unfortunately, things don't improve at the weekend either. More than a quarter of us regularly stay in the house the whole time and nearly half said they have done this once or twice.

''Once the clocks go back at the end of October the dark nights really start to take effect,” said Robert Slade of Beurer, makers of Brightlight Daylight Lamps which combat seasonal affective disorder, which commissioned the study.

''And if you leave for work relatively early then the chances are your mornings are dark too, which means that if you don't get time outdoors as part of your job then you are likely to see very little daylight at all during the week.

''That in itself can be very depressing and it's inevitable that long dark days will have an effect on our moods.''

The pending arrival of the in-laws and the expense of Christmas also emerged as factors in the winter glumness.

Respondents added that the prospect of having to wait up to nine months for their next sunshine holidays also made this time of year 'dreadful'.

[Related: Feeling SAD? Maybe it’s seasonal affective disorder]

People said they stay in all weekend during winter to chill out and relax, according to two thirds of respondents, and 37 per cent of people stay indoors rather than brave the elements outside.

Not surprisingly, 35 per cent of those polled said they have a lack of energy during autumn and winter months, nearly half said that don't have enough sleep and a third suffer from subdued moods.

But a resourceful 17 per cent of adults said they deliberately booked a foreign holiday in the winter months to get some sunshine.

However more than half of Brits said they would like nothing more than to go in to hibernation until the spring and unsurprisingly half of us said our climate was the worst thing about being British.

How often do you see the light of day? Are you reveling in winter or looking forward to spring? Let us know over on Twitter now.