The following article by Chris Tribble discusses the uses of words associated with sunny and times of the day in the (Manchester) Guardian Weekly.

What a difference a day makes

If it is summer time where you are, then sunny days should be here again - but not very often in the Guardian Weekly, it would seem. Try as I might, I could only find nine instances of sunny days. in the past 12 years of the Guardian Weekly archive (along with six of sunny morning and six of sunny day). I did, however, find some day-related things that intrigued me.

In terms of numbers, day (19,028) and days (11,349) come top of the list, with night (5,448), morning (2,459), evening (1,667) and afternoon (1,019) coming a long way behind. The little bits of time in between follow: midnight (469), noon (181), twilight (142) and midday (130).

None of this is very surprising. What I found more interesting was the way in which these words bond so strongly with other less likely ones. Thus we fins night with: watchman (mainly in cricket), night vision goggles, sky, sweats and sittings (of parliament); evening with: Evening Standard, Evening News (both newspapers), meal, gown, classes, dress and stroll; afternoon with heat, tea, sun, session (of a meeting) and sunshine; and day with visit, internationals (as in cricket), trippers, trip and (less positively) strike. Midday is found with sun and heat and noon with high (as in the film).

The worst times of the day seem to be morning with: morning after pill, prayers, mist, sickness and rush hour, and dawn with dusk to dawn curfew, raid, raids and chorus (a good thing).

Days and nights offer another story. Setting aside the obvious combinations with later, before, after and earlier, days most strongly bonds with: fighting, captivity, mourning, rioting, death, intense, deliberations and penitence.

Do nights tell a happier story? I'm afraid not. This much shorter list is topped by rioting.

So what would the best advice be for a visitor from Mars who has the misfortune to find him or herself on Earth at the beginning of the 21st century? First, get up late if they want to avoid all those pre-noon problems. Second, avoid the midday sun. And third, try to get to bed as soon as possible after tea-time to avoid the twilight zone which appears to lead only to the ends of career or life.