When the Sun Sets Earlier: Do You Need a Happy Light?

When the Sun Sets Earlier:

Do You Need a Happy Light?

A full- spectrum light may help some people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but if something is making you feel sad, make sure you find some way to find help in understanding your feelings. Many people suffer needlessly and may even feel suicidal in the wintertime when the weather is colder and the sun shines less and less.   

 

In Winter and always, take good care of yourself. 

 

When I was growing up in Florida, it never occurred to me that I might live in a place without sunshine.  Even when it was raining, I always knew the sun was not far away.  In the summertime, the sun would be shining when the rain was pouring down.  At the lake, the rain would stream across slowly enough for us to jump into the water and swim around before the rain would hit our dock.  All the while the sun would keep shining.

When I moved to Northern Indiana, the sun seemed to have stayed in Florida.  The summers were short and the winters were very, very long.  From October to almost June, there was snow on the ground, and it never went away.  I always thought snow melted.  But I had never encountered temperatures so low.  My groceries froze in the car.  My sodas were solid.   

 

Snow, snow, snow--how could there be that much snow?  Even in North Carolina where I had lived for decades, there was sunshine most of the year.  My first winter in Northern Indiana, not far from Chicago, I began to sink into a funk early in November and was very depressed by January.  I knew what I felt was nothing normal.  I could barely get out of bed.  Food tasted strange, and my energy was gone.  A kind doctor suggested a temporary medication and a full-spectrum light.  What a difference both made.  Now I wouldn't do without my light.  While I've had different models over the years, they have all helped to fight off what I learned was Seasonal Affected Disorder or SAD.  Maybe I was more prone to SAD because I came from the South where I had lived for over forty years by the time I loved to the Midwest.  I don't know, but I am so glad that I found something that helped me so much. 

Now that I live in Pennsylvania I enjoy more sun year round than I did in Indiana.  But I still depend upon my happy light to keep my mood up in the fall and winter.  I get it out around the end of September and turn it on as I wake up.  Experts suggest ten to thirty minutes each morning.  No need to look at it directly.  I turn it on before I get out of bed and it makes the morning brighter.  Sometimes I turn it on for a little longer in the late afternoon as the sun begins to set earlier.  Might a full-spectrum light help you if you are feeling sad this time of year? Whatever you need to help you cope with the winter or with a time of loss or grief or with a hard time, seek out help.  Take good care of yourself.  You are worth it.