[majorlazer]

I moved up to the Portland area a couple years ago from California, and I have considered going to U. of Washington for CS. I love the school, the campus is just beautiful and the city is really cool. But since moving up here, my productivity has taken a serious hit.

From the months of October well into June, I have a constant struggle to stay motivated with such dreary weather. I know Portland isn't Seattle, but I visit Seattle often and it's almost as "bad" as Portland when it comes to the weather. Many of my friends here don't mind the weather and actually love the rain. As someone that needs sunlight, I can't stay up here another year, I will be moving back down to the bay area this upcoming fall. It really is a shame because I do love Portland and Seattle very much.

If only the Northwest had just a little bit more sunlight, I would never consider moving down. But those few months in the Winter/Spring really take a toll on me.

[gwern]

I wonder how much of that may be a vitamin D deficiency or a kind of SAD? Too late for you to experiment with melatonin, high lux lights, or vitamin D, I guess.

[majorlazer]

I actually did take Vitamin D and 5-HTP for quite sometime (still take 5-HTP), and it did help me a little bit. My problem was the fact that every time I go outside to head to work/school, it's either raining, cloudy, foggy, or a combination of the three. And I used to love rain and fog when I lived in California, but it didn't last for 6+ months at a time.

Waking up in the morning during the winter has been the worst part. I have always been an early riser, but when I just moved here, for about a year I could barely get up at 9am.

[pavedwalden]

I've had a hard time getting up in the morning all my life, and it was worse in the winters after moving to Portland. I ended up getting an earlier version of this gadget (http://www.amazon.com/Philips-goLITE-BLU-Therapy-Device/dp/B...), and found that a few minutes of blue-frequency light every morning turned me into a natural early riser. (I still don't like mornings, but I naturally wake up and get out of bed at the same time every day)

Your circadian rhythm is especially susceptible to the blue end of the spectrum so instead of a 10,000 watt sun lamp you can just use one of these (or perhaps a home-brewed equivalent with the right LEDs) to let your body know that, if you were in a better lattitude, the sun would be shining right now.

[micro_cam]

I think seattle gets more sun breaks then portland thanks to the rain shadow of the olympics and areas like Wenatchee (no tech jobs) and the tri cities (tech jobs at PNNL or working on the nuclear waste cleanup at hanford) get much more sun and can be nice for weekend trips. Learning to ski is also a great way to enjoy the winters.

[zachrose]

Seattle has better weather than Portland: the marine winds blow the clouds out of the way every now and then, whereas in Portland it feels like it can be overcast for months.

Summer is great in both cities.