How to Harness Light to Defeat the Winter Blues

Winter can be a beautiful time full of holiday cheer, gorgeous snowscapes, and fun activities like sledding and skiing. But even with all this fun, some people can't help but experience the winter blues. Their mood takes a dip in the fall and winter even when life is otherwise going well.

Is it winter blues or Seasonal Affective Disorder?

For about 3 percent of people, this mood downturn is so severe that they have something called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). They not only feel blue but they also experience:

• Loss of interest in things they usually like
• Unusual tiredness or sluggishness
• Trouble sleeping
• A tendency to overeat and gain weight
• Difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly
• Feelings of hopelessness, or sometimes even having suicidal thoughts

Why does this happen? Is there a way to beat the seasonal blues?

Light may be the key to beating the winter blues

The secret may lie in light. That’s right, the free resource that comes from our sun. Plants rely on soaking up light to make food and grow, but it turns out that we animals need light too. Our biology is so wrapped up with light that our metabolism, mood, and thinking are all affected.

Here are some things to know about why light is important for mental health and how to harness it for better health and happiness, especially in the winter months:

Our mood is intimately tied to light

The winter blues and SAD don’t just happen to people because they don’t like winter. There is actually a biological reason for winter depression. Here's a clue: The people most susceptible to winter-induced depression are those living far from the equator. Living farther away from the equator means you get fewer daylight hours in the wintertime.

Light is the single most powerful factor in tuning your body clock.

Because there's less daylight during fall and winter, the body’s circadian rhythm gets disrupted. Light is the single most powerful factor in tuning this body clock, and with less and less of it as we move from fall to winter, the body’s natural rhythms can become less robust. That's bad for your mood, metabolism, cognitive functioning, and many other body systems that play a role in depression. It’s also possible that less...

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