What happens to our cognition in the darkest depths of winter?

[Ocelot II]

1. I've often wondered whether people just psyche themselves into feeling worse -

more tired, more depressed - in the winter, just because some aspects of winter can be kind of a pain in the butt, at least in northern climates. We just got a big snowstorm, and it's a bother because you have to clear your sidewalks and driveways and the roads are slippery. On the other hand, things look a lot better now because all the ugly dead brown stuff is covered with snow. When the sun comes out it's beautiful. I've never minded winter all that much, used to do a lot of cross-country skiing until my old knees started to object, and I try to go out for a walk every day regardless of the weather (det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær, like the writer said, and it even rhymes). I think we are told by everybody that winter sucks so we are expected to find it oppressive, and we behave accordingly. Anyhow, if we didn't have winter we wouldn't appreciate spring as much.