Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is the venom infused into the cold winter months — and we’ve all had a taste of it. What is it about the cold and darkness that subtly poisons our moods? And, more importantly, how can we combat SAD’s effects?
According to the Mayo Clinic, SAD has three primary causes: drop in serotonin, disruption in melatonin production and changes to your biological clock. For those of you who aren’t biology majors, here’s what that means:
Serotonin is a brain chemical that affects your mood and, without sunlight, reductions in serotonin can make you feel depressed.
Melatonin helps you sleep — and most of us could stand to get more sleep. Changes in season can disrupt your body’s normal melatonin production, leaving you sleepy and irritable throughout the winter.
Your biological clock, or circadian rhythm, is your body’s normal schedule for metabolism, hormone production and other biological processes. Once the sun stops shining for a majority of the day, your body’s sense of time is thrown off, and this can disrupt that internal biology — one reason you probably feel “off.”
As a fellow student trying to survive the dropping temperatures, I will share a few of my favorite tips for staying upbeat until the sun returns.
First: make a happy, carefree playlist full of music that makes you want to frolic down streets and sing at the top of your lungs. Music has been shown to lift your mood (although most of us don’t need science to tell us this, we’ve all experienced the endorphin rush of our favorite song on the radio.) Remembering your headphones just became even more crucial for that trip to the library.
Another tip is to get outside! Even when it’s cold. The temptation to hibernate inside under a blanket and three sweatshirts when the temperature drops below freezing may be strong, but even in the cold, some of the sun’s rays still manage to peek through. Even better, take the opportunity to exercise while you’re out there…it will warm you from the inside, and exercise has been shown to increase serotonin levels. Sunlight plus a runner’s high is the ultimate SAD repellant.
Next tip — hang out with your friends. Everybody knows the old phrase, “misery loves company,” and nothing cures the winter blues quite like drinking some hot chocolate and staying in for a movie with friends night after a long, freezing day.
Finally, when all else fails, force yourself to smile — even if you have to fake it. According to another odd scientific fact, simply the act of forming your facial muscles into a smile puts you in a better mood. It may feel more like a grimace, but after a minute of awkwardness you may start to feel like the smile isn’t so fake after all.
Whether we like it or not, winter is coming. We will have to walk to class in the cold, go out at night in the cold, and dress in layers of jackets for at least three months. However, with a little bit of motivation and a few of the aforementioned tips, I have faith that we can survive the winter and defeat the forces of SAD.
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