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Do you suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? A new theory explains why:
When dawn comes later in the winter, the end of melatonin secretion drifts later, says Kripke. From animal studies, it appears that high melatonin levels just after the time an animal wakes up strongly suppress the making of active thyroid hormone—and lowering thyroid levels in the brain can cause changes in mood, appetite, and energy. For instance, thyroid hormone is known to influence serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood. Several studies have shown that levels of brain serotonin in humans are at their lowest in the winter and highest in the summer. In 2016, scientists in Canada discovered that people with severe SAD show greater seasonal changes in a protein that terminates the action of serotonin than others with no or less severe symptoms, suggesting that the condition and the neurotransmitter are linked.
It's possible that many of these mechanisms are at work, even if the precise relationships haven't been fully teased apart yet. But regardless of what causes winter depression, bright light—particularly when delivered in the early morning—seems to reverse the symptoms.
Bright, full spectrum lights do the trick.
(Score: 2) by driven on Friday March 24 2017, @02:20PM (1 child)
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/2013/01/getting-vitamin-d-during-the-dead-of-winter/ [intermountainhealthcare.org]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday March 24 2017, @06:16PM
Taking melatonin before bed helps me a lot.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Friday March 24 2017, @03:28PM (1 child)
So this wasn't common knowledge already? This has been a thing up in the north of the world for years. They even have "lightrooms" in the hospitals - around 2000-4000 lux and you spend a few hours in there. For those pesky times of the year when the sun can barely make it across the horizon. Perhaps it's just a scandinavian thing, but one would think the canadians had copied that already considering they are in about the same geographical setting.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday March 24 2017, @05:06PM
We know about it. But is is tricky to figure out if somebody is simply depressed by the lack of sunlight or not. Seasonal variations are probably the biggest clue.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday March 24 2017, @03:29PM
Our brains, while amazingly smart compared to other animals, is still basically akin to that one software project you started 20 years ago, with each new feature haphazardly hacked into the existing framework wherever it fits.
Face facts, no matter how smart you think you are, your brain is a giant hack to barely manage to navigate early tribal society.
(Score: 3, Touché) by KiloByte on Friday March 24 2017, @03:50PM
bright light—particularly when delivered in the early morning—seems to reverse the symptoms.
Sounds doable -- we can stay awake a couple of hours longer to catch some sunlight after dawn.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 24 2017, @05:15PM (2 children)
It's [bleep]ing winter!
You should be saving energy, and your brain knows it. Millions of years of "if the sun isn't there much, and it's cold, don't go running around wasting your reserves" natural selection.
And that's only because we're too dumb to hibernate.
Ain't no [bleep]ing disorder, it's a feature!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @08:48PM
I wish I had the disorder that causes people to behave like hyper caffinated gerbils even in winter time.
Then again I also wish I were a sociopath. I didn't realize until too late in my life that sociopathy is the best way to make money. Sociopaths also seem to behave like hyper caffinated gerbils in the dead of winter, but not when it's raining out. I haven't figured that out yet.
Only that I wish it rained more often so people wouldn't behave like hyper caffinated sociopathic gerbils all the time.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Saturday March 25 2017, @10:48AM
That'd be a fine theory, except for a few problems:
1) Most mammals don't hibernate; while they'll conserve energy to some degree, they need to remain active enough to hunt prey and/or evade predators on a regular basis.
2) Our ancestral species, like much of modern humanity, are from areas where it doesn't become freezing cold in the winter.
3) Seasonal Affective Disorder is just a season-specific form of major depressive disorder, so the person ends up with the same kinds of symptoms: hopelessness, feeling worthless, enough misery to be suicidal, withdrawal from social interaction, difficulty concentrating, lack of interest in sex, irrational agitation, and so forth.
4) People can (and do) develop SAD that's triggered by spring, fall, or summer instead.
(Score: 1) by mechanicjay on Friday March 24 2017, @05:35PM (1 child)
We've just had our first sort of legitimate sunny days this week after a pretty constant 6 weeks of grey. It's been kinda rough.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @08:30PM
I know, its so bright out. It hurts my eyes.