Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as the "winter blues" is not uncommon for those who have a lack of exposure to sunlight in the fall and winter months. Find out how you can add a little "sunshine" in the dark!
If you live in the Upper Midwest like I do, then you will more fully understand that Fall and Winter can be a gloomy and depressing time of year. It not only starts to get darker earlier, but we also get to set our clocks back an hour - thanks to the lovely Daylight Savings Time! Many people here, and in places that have periods of the year where daylight is very limited, can suffer from something called S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
S.A.D. (defined by Wikipedia) is “when you feel sad at a certain time of year, most of the time in winter. People who suffer from this usually feel better in spring.”
It goes on to state the following common symptoms:
- Feeling sad, grumpy anxious or moody
- Losing interest in your usual activities
- Eating more carbohydrates (I am also personally affected by this all year long…hmmm)
- Gaining weight
- Sleeping more and feeling sleepy during the day
So, what can be done to help remedy this? While we at LightBulbs.com can never diagnose someone with S.A,D., we do offer a product that gives you the benefit of daylight all year round.
There are light bulbs that assimilate sunlight called Full Spectrum lights. These lights mimic and give similar benefits as the sun would put forth at high noon! You can buy these products in fluorescent and incandescent styles. Fluorescent Full Spectrum lights have a very high Kelvin rating – this is how color temperature is rated in lighting. Feel free to click here to see the differences in color temperature.
One of the more common products with Full Spectrum lighting would be the lightbox. It uses fluorescent bulbs and you can place them next to yourself at your desk, dining room table, lounger or even the bathroom counter.
Others may choose to replace incandescent light bulbs with ones that have Neodymium embedded in the glass. NEO what? Neodymium is a chemical element that can be found on the periodic table (Nd). When placed in glass, it helps to filter out the warm colors that naturally occur in an incandescent light bulb and, therefore, allows the bulb to assimilate sunlight. The bulbs themselves have a light blue or lavender color when they are not burning.
…as a side note, Full Spectrum bulbs are also used for grow lamps for plants, aquarium lamps and color-matching lamps as they more closely assimilate sunlight and provide a more true color rendering.
Disclaimer: LightBulbs.com does not diagnose, prescribe treatment nor guarantee results.
