The winter blahs are real,
but so is your ability to beat them.

By Lori Hall Steele
The darkness is upon us—that time of year when days narrow and night lasts and lasts. Up here on the 45th parallel, it’s a time of hunkering down by the hearth, bracing for winter’s snowy joys and cozy quarters. It’s also a time when the majority of us are susceptible to a particular strain of depression: seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
      Light deprivation causes the disorder—and whether you call it the winter blues, the seasonal blahs, or just plain gloom, it’s a very real condition that affects work, home and play. Symptoms include oversleeping, overeating and generalized pessimism.
      How widespread is the misery? Well, a recent national survey by ComPsych, a national firm that studies workplace issues, found that 46 percent of workers felt less productive all day during winter months, and another 33 percent reported less energy, thanks to less daylight. The majority of us are affected, to some degree, by darkness.
      Up North, we’re especially vulnerable, thanks to lake-effect clouds and our halfway-to-the-North-Pole latitude. On the year’s shortest day, December 22, we’ve got six hours and twelve minutes less sunshine than on June 21, the summer solstice. Hardcore, debilitating SAD affects up to 10 percent of Northern Michigan residents (compared to 1.4 percent of Floridians, 9 percent of Michiganders and 10.2 percent of residents in uber-cloudy Seattle).
      That said, you really don’t need to go around reciting Poe’s “one dark and dreary December day” all winter. True clinical depression is not affected by geography or seasons, but seasonal depression has a traceable cause: lack of melatonin production in the brain, which is caused by less light energy—the sun’s rays—entering the eyes. Among other things, melatonin helps regulate your sleep.
      Knowing this, you can take action now to keep your emotions buoyed, before winter’s sun-deprivation makes you mopey and morose. Try these:
      —Seek natural lux: Get daily exposure to as much sun as possible. Even on cloudy days there’s up to 10,000 lux—a measurement of sunlight— and though that’s well below summer’s average 100,000 lux, some lux is better than none.
      —Move: Exercise can boost happy-happy-joy-joy body chemistry. Stomp around the woods in your big Up North boots, ski or snowshoe or sled, hit the gym, pop in a Pilates video, or just shake a leg in your kitchen listening to the radio.
      —The Power of Positive Thinking: Purge those negative thoughts (thwap them with your ski pole, if that’s what it takes). If it’s cloudy, instead of chanting “it’s cloudy, it’s gloomy, it’s dreary, it’s gray,” turn it around. Tell yourself, hey, it might be a good day for reading or shopping or skiing. Try out a new dried-cherries-and-pork recipe, get out those oil paints, start planning a garden. Just don’t let gloom-thoughts steal your sunshine.
      —Cut the Carbs: Simple sugars can worsen moods, so no Twinkies! Treat your body like a temple. Fill that tummy with tasty, healthy proteins, rich grains, leafy greens. Or better yet—cook up some healthy soups and stews, for a double-dose elixir of good nutrition and aromatherapy.
      —Balance your yin and yang: Feng shui the place—move your furniture, spruce up the joint, and derive the positive emotional payback from having your house in order. Lots of people promise that this really helps.


THE LIGHT STUFF
“It’s all about prevention,” says Chad DeBolt, a manager at Thompson Pharmacy in Traverse City. Knowing that you can be hit by SAD means you can act now to make life easier through the long winter nights. Try these products:
      —Dawn Simulators: These beside lamps are becoming increasingly popular. They mimic sunrise, working in tandem with alarms to wake you gradually. This makes sense to the body—it’s in line with our circadian rhythms. Costs: $75 to $100.
      —Full-Spectrum Lightbulbs: These incandescent bulbs don’t actually provide enough lux to produce melatonin, but they do create a more color-correct atmosphere, imitating sunlight with a full range of hues (rather than white or yellow-dominated light). The result is a more pleasing environment. Trust us: You’ll be happier. Cost $9-$10 per bulb, and they last and last.
      —Light-therapy boxes: At $250 and up, they still aren’t cheap, but these units deliver 10,000 lux or more in a twenty- to thirty-minute sitting (best time: morning). They’re available online or at medical supply companies. It usually takes a week to determine if light therapy is right for you. Thompson rents them out—and 80 percent of renters end up using them all season.

Published in Northern HOME.