’Tis the Season to Be SAD

Feeling down in the dumps lately? It could just be an ordinary case of the blues and you’ll feel better in the morning. But if it hits you especially hard on dark, dreary winter days, it could be seasonal affective disorder (SAD). No one is quite sure why some folks are troubled by SAD while others are not, but we do know what triggers it: The absence of light during winter’s gray days and long nights causes the pineal gland to turn the hormone serotonin into melatonin. The lack of serotonin makes the chilly months miserable — and if you don’t face the problem square on, the symptoms can lead to major trouble down the road.

For many folks, SAD is far more serious than a simple case of cold-weather blahs. Like any other type of depression, it can affect your whole life and well-being. Symptoms vary greatly in their intensity from one person to another, but these are the most common signs that SAD has struck:

• Craving for sweets and starches
• Depression
• Intense desire to hibernate
• Sleep disturbances
• Permanent jet-lagged feeling

Try these effective and easy ways to lift your SAD woes:

Flee your cave. Force yourself to get outdoors for part of every day, regardless of the weather. Exposure to the sun’s rays, even on dim, overcast days, ups your levels of vitamin D, which in turn increases your serotonin supply. Even during the darkest downpour, there is 30 times more light outdoors than in.

Tipple some tea. Whenever you feel a craving for carbohydrates, sip a cup of chamomile tea. It’ll divert your attention from food and give you a much-needed energy boost at the same time.

Tipple some more tea. To curb your overall appetite — and therefore, avoid packing on pounds — buy a bottle of fennel essential oil at a health food store or on the Internet. Then before each meal, add two drops of the oil to a cup of warm water, and drink up.

Get Extra “D” During Standard Time

Last weekend, we finally got to make up for that hour we lost last March when daylight savings time began. And I’ll tell you what — that extra hour of sleep Sunday morning made me feel like a million bucks!

And I’m not the only one. Studies show that there are fewer car accidents during the week after we set our clocks back in the fall. After getting a little more rest over the weekend, rush hour commuters are far more alert than they are in the spring, when daylight savings time begins.

But for some folks, the benefits of that extra hour are overshadowed by increasingly shorter days with less and less sunlight, and the thought of a long, cold winter ahead. If this sounds familiar, here are a few things you can do to lighten up the winter blues:

• Use as much indoor light as your budget allows. Try filling your sockets with full-spectrum light bulbs that include all the colors of the rainbow and look much more like natural daylight.
• Plan special events that will keep you happy. Make firm commitments now, so you’ll have something to look forward to when the blahs set in. And if you can, take your annual vacation this winter, rather than next summer, and head for the sun.
• Get 30 minutes of regular exercise a day to get your endorphins circulating and you’ll find it much easier to combat the depression of a long, cold, dark winter. 
• Help your body make up for what it’s missing when it’s not exposed to sunlight: vitamin D—a.k.a. the sunshine vitamin. Milk is loaded with D, so drink at least one glass a day.

If seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a problem for you, try what’s called a dawn simulator — essentially a bedside lamp that gradually glows from dim to more intense light, mimicking a natural mid-May sunrise. Just program the fake dawn to start one to three hours before you awaken, and your body will detect the changing light through your closed eyelids.