SAD Lamps
Although it's only been fairly recently recognised as an actual problem, Season Affective Disorder (SAD) is thought to affect about 2 million people in the UK. For a long time it was always referred to as the 'winter blues'.
The winter is often a miserable time with grey skies, cold, wet weather and short days. It's these short and grey sunless days that are the root of the problem.
If you suffer from SAD you'll find yourself becoming more and more depressed once the days begin to shorten. The shorter the days the more depression deepens which is why December, January and February are the worst months for SAD.
General depression isn't the only symptom. Other common ones are lethargy, overeating, anxiety, withdrawal and poor sleep. For some people the symptoms are bad enough to need medication, but for most it's a case of feeling gloomy and miserable for a few months until the symptoms lift.
The most popular theory as to why people feel this way is because of lack of sunshine. The hypothalamus, which controls mood, appetite and sleep, needs indirect stimulation from light to function properly. The production of serotonin, a brain chemical which also has a role in mood levels, also seems to be affected by levels of exposure to sunlight.
Luckily there is an easy cure for the majority of SAD suffers and that's exposure to more light, but not just any type of light. For those suffering from more severe SAD the use of a light box is what is needed. For mild to moderate forms SAD lamps are probably all you need.
Ordinary light bulbs emit only a small spectrum of light in comparison to the sun. Full spectrum light bulbs are able to emit the full range and are also a lot brighter than normal bulbs. The thing you'll notice the most is how white the light is, not the usual dingy yellow.
Using SAD lamps allows you to be exposed to sunlight levels of light without doing anything special. You can have one as a desk lamp or you can use SAD lamps in your living room as a floor or table lamp as you sit in the evenings watching TV. By using these lamps you'll find your mood lifting without you having to change your life in any way.
There are other benefits too from using these lamps. If you like to read you'll notice that as you get older it becomes more difficult to focus on the page under artificial light. This is because the contrast is so poor unless you use a full spectrum light as you do in SAD lamps. Then the paper will appear white not yellow and the text will look crisp on the page.
For the same reason they are also ideal for anyone who likes to do craftwork or model building. Anyone who needs to do anything under good lighting conditions will benefit from using SAD lamps not just people who are suffering from seasonal affective disorder.