What is SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)?

Mental health is a hot button topic - and rightfully so. As individuals and as a nation, it feels like we’re in a tight spot. One in five Americans has been diagnosed with a mental illness. It’s not that it’s too late to do anything, but we know the old saying - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In light of that, let’s talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder, how it can impact you or someone close to you, and what you can do to mitigate or even prevent it.

What is it?

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months.”

floatation therapy in Lawrenceville — What do symptoms of SAD look like?

Feeling listless, sad or down most of the day, nearly every day
Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
Having low energy and feeling sluggish
Having problems with sleeping too much
Experiencing carbohydrate cravings, overeating and weight gain
Having difficulty concentrating
Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
Having thoughts of not wanting to live
Oversleeping
Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
Weight gain
Tiredness or low energy

What happens in our bodies that create an environment for seasonal affective disorder?

1) Our biological clock gets thrown off.

Our circadian rhythm - the natural 24 hour clock that our body goes through adjusting hormone levels like melatonin and cortisol throughout the day - gets disrupted as we get less sunlight during the day. This change is actually terrible for our health. The day we move the clocks forward creates a natural science experiment where we see major spikes in the following:

A 24% increase in heart attacks (according to one study).

A 6% increase in fatal car accidents.

An 8% increase in strokes.

Changes in our circadian rhythm are bad -these numbers are pretty insane and attributed to this single one hour time shift.

2) Our Serotonin levels generally drop when we experience less sunlight.

Serotonin is a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and throughout your body. Serotonin plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting and sexual desire. Serotonin levels that are too low or too high can cause physical and psychological health problems.

It plays a vital role in how we feel - like when it gets dark at 6pm, how does that make you feel? When it’s light until 8pm in the summer, how does that make you feel? Our bodies are very in tune with sunlight, as we’ll explain later, so more or less sunlight fluctuates this hormone in particular and if our levels drop enough, we can begin to feel depressed. The difficult part about all of this is everyone’s hormone levels vary, so less sunlight for some is no problem, but for others can trigger depression.

3. Our melatonin levels are dictated by sunlight.

We all know what melatonin is - or at least what it does- because it is one of the most oversold over the counter products on the market. The change in season can disrupt the balance of the body's level of melatonin, which plays a role in sleep patterns and mood. And supplementing is a bad habit that can actually become detrimental if you suppress your body’s natural production of it.

Sunlight triggers our body to start the timer for melatonin release later in the day which promotes a proper wakefulness period during the day along with that sleepy feeling at night - that signal we often ignore that it’s time to go to bed. As we throw off our sleep cycle and ultimately get less sleep (or just poor quality of sleep), we’re at risk for symptoms of SAD as well.

Ok so that all sounds like a bummer. But here are four tips for preventing seasonal affective disorder from getting you down this year…

#1
Wake up with the sun and get outside (despite the cold) for 10-15 minutes in the morning. We need sunlight in our eyeballs, but don’t take my word for it. Andrew Huberman, Stanford Ophthalmologist…

“The simple behavior that I do believe everybody should adopt… is to view, ideally sunlight, for 2–10 minutes every morning upon waking. So, when you get up in the morning, you really want to get bright light into your eyes because it does two things. First of all, it triggers the timed release of cortisol, a healthy level of cortisol, into your system, which acts as a wake-up signal and will promote wakefulness and the ability to focus throughout the day. It also starts a timer for the onset of melatonin.”

#2 We’re not doctors so take this with a grain of salt, but supplements are useful. One of the most important ones you can take year round is Vitamin D (*always consult a doctor). According to the Mayo Clinic: Vitamin D is a nutrient your body needs for building and maintaining healthy bones. That's because your body can only absorb calcium, the primary component of bone, when vitamin D is present. Vitamin D also regulates many other cellular functions in your body. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective properties support immune health, muscle function and brain cell activity.

Supplementing serotonin and melatonin can be useful, but they’re so dependent on the individual, we can’t offer any guidance. If you do try either, be cautious not to overdo it.