FALL AND SAD

Here in Painted Post, we are now well into the Fall. Overnight temperatures are down to freezing level causing the autumn colors to shift to reds and crimsons. Hooray that DLS ends next Sunday with daylight shifting a hour back to the beginning of the day!

Have you noticed how, during the shorter days of Fall and Winter, your energy slowly slips away? When I worked in Kennewick (in eastern Washington state) I chose a four day working week. This had me at work from 7 AM to 6 PM, leaving my apartment in the dark and returning in the dark. When the Spring finally came and the trees burst into flower, I was amazed at the surge of energy I experienced. I finally realized that my energy had been gradually seeping away each day without my realizing what was going on.

Strictly speaking, this was not Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) but nonetheless a serious depletion of mood. I suspect it affects many of us. In Australia, I had not noticed this. However the latitude of Kennewick is about 46 degrees while that of Melbourne is about 46 degrees. That means that in Melbourne Winter daylight is much longer. Besides, there are always some plants flowering, like the beautiful wattle.

What can be done about this? Our mood is highly related to the level of serotonin; this chemical washes all around our body but is associated in the brain with elevation of mood. This is why recent drugs developed to combat depression aim to increase seratonin levels. Researchers at Austin Hospital in Melbourne have found that seratonin plummets during Autumn to as low as 20% of summertime levels. They also found that spending 20 minutes midmorning outside, even on cloudy days, could produce impressive increases. Adding exercise outdoors, like a 20 minute walk around the block, further assists to this effect. It is important not to wear sunglasses when doing this. Looking up from time to time at the sky also helped.

Exercise that produces slight sweating for about 20 minutes also increases other 'feel good' chemicals, endorphins, in the brain. Regular exercise has the effect of training the brain to produce these hormones earlier in the exercise period. Regular exercise also signals the brain to instruct the body to shaft away from the "slow down, winter is here" metabolic rate.

One can increase seratonin by eating dark chocolate. In addition to the active ingredient in chocolate, the sugar assists seratonin levels to increase. We are only talking of eating a few (more than two and less than five) small pieces of chocolate each day. The calories in this amount of chocolate will be burned off with moderate, regular exercise.

Lots of folk find that fluorescent lights help as do 'full spectrum' globes with a color temperature of above 5,000 K. These used to be very expensive (like $12 each) but now can be readily purchased for about $2 each. The great thing about this is that you also reduce your energy bills when you use these bulbs (plus, following Al Gore, if every household in America switched five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the highways for a full year.) Feel good...do good!

Autumn seems to be the danger period when we begin to feel that we ought to stay inside (maybe because our bodies are not used to the sudden onset of cold conditions). Toward actual Winter, we get outdoors again to ski or just go for a drive or a walk. In 1992, I was in Alaska in the little town of Anderson to attend a blue grass music festival. I talked to the sheriff about the long winter days (I was there in midsummer). He told me how they arranged outdoor competitions under lights. He said it was those who stayed indoors who suffered 'cabin fever' and were at risk of depression and even suicide.

What do I do about it? I use the full spectrum lights, make sure I exercise in some way each day, get outside before lunchtime (like yesterday when I turned the compost before lunch) and make sure that I eat enough (trying to stay on a strict diet can cause serotonin levels to drop really seriously). Yes, and I think that I will buy some dark chocolate next time I hit the supermarket!