Article by the Drummond Team

Got the winter blues? Here’s a guide to getting more light in your life!

During these very dark winter months, it’s easy to let lack of daylight get the better of us. But there are plenty of ways to stay one step ahead of the darkness….

Apparently, April is the cruellest month, but here in the UK, November and December could give it a run for its money. In the northern hemisphere, the nights are noticeably drawing in, especially now the clocks have gone back and sunset is an hour earlier. Every day, it gets darker two minutes earlier than it did the day before.

Things are even worse in the UK, especially after the kind of long, hot summer that we have just enjoyed. Historically, Britain is a cloudy nation. It’s an island nation, there’s a lot of fog and cloud coming off the sea. More recently, our summers have been hot and sunny and dry. Now, when you have a hot, sunny and dry summer and a cloudy, dark winter, that’s when the seasonality of the problem becomes more apparent. The further north you go, the gloomier it gets. In the winter, there are parts of northern Scotland that get an average of just 64 minutes of sunlight a day, according to the Met Office.

Perhaps a quarter of those with winter blues develop the extreme form known as seasonal affective disorder, or Sad. This is characterised by the typical features of depression – poor sleep, low mood, irritability, social withdrawal and perhaps overeating, too. It is probably, in part, related to hormonal changes around those chemical messengers such as serotonin and melatonin involved in regulating our body clock.

Some people with Sad may find it very difficult to wake up in the morning and can often feel sleepy during the day. They may crave chocolate and high-carbohydrate foods, such as white bread or sugary foods.

So what can we do to help boost our mood in the dark winter months:

The worst cases may call for antidepressants or cognitive behavioural therapy. Otherwise, you could try spending a few hours every day in front of a lightbox, for example specialist suppliers Lumie and the Sad Lightbox Company, and a box that will put out at least 10,000 lux. (By way of comparison, a sunny summer’s day might deliver 100,000 lux) Morning treatments are best, and the earlier the better! Although winter’s late sunrises feel less oppressive than its early sunsets, that does not mean they don’t affect us.

You can start by making at least one room in your home as bright as possible, by adding artificial light, opening curtains, rolling up blinds, cleaning your windows and trimming any plants that obscure them. Then, even if it is raining, snowing or blowing a gale, get outdoors as much as possible. So, even if you seem to go to work when it’s dark and also go home when it’s dark, get out in the lunch hour. Even better, use it as a time to do your daily exercise. Exercise, after all, is known to improve your mood, whatever the time of year.

And if you don’t think of yourself as a winter person, it is worth investing in warm clothes so the weather can’t keep you cooped up. While you are out, the sunlight will encourage your body to produce vitamin D.

Source: The guardian.com/ WebMD