Winter

Well Winter is on it's way? How do I know? Apart from the fact that Winter follows Autum, I tell you how I know. I am waking up more tired than when I went to bed!!!

The nights are drawing in and the mornings are getting darker, and I sleep walk to the station.

Last January I was feeling very very depressed. I could have cheerfully cut my throat, in fact in my whole life, I had NEVER felt that low and I had no idea why. To cheer myself up one evening, I phoned a friend and she met me to go for a chinese meal. THATS another clue, I eat and eat and eat! Anyway, we were sitting chatting away, least she was as I was finding it hard to be sociable, when she tells me about an article she had read saying that this January (06) was one of the worst in history for the lack of day light due to the grotty weather we had been having and there was also a higher incidence of depression.

I sort of woke up at that point. I am prone to a bit of seasonal adjustment disorder (SAD) and began to wonder if maybe that was my ailment. I went to work the next day and was discussing the conversation with my manager when a lady from another department walked in and was listening. After I had finished she told me she too suffered with SAD and had got herself a light box. She gave me the following web address and I went on it.
http://www.lighttherapyproducts.com/

I have to say, I am a very down to earth sort of person, and tended to think about these things as psychobabble but I got on the site and read the symptoms and discovered I was experiencing EXACTLY those things!

My Manager, bless her, allowed me to order one on company expenses so long as I kept it in my office. When it arrived, I got it out of the box, plugged it in and whoa!! IT WAS BRIGHT!!! It needs to be shining on you in a place you can occassionally glance at it, but not be shining in your eyes.

I swear to a higher power, after a few days, I started to feel different. I got a good nights sleep, when I woke in the mornings I felt I had HAD a good nights sleep. My mood brightened, I stopped craving carbs, in fact I was positively hyper!! So much so that when Debs (The lady who suggested it) phoned my manager to see how I was getting on, She threatened to stab me because I was so bloody happy!!!

Course, there is sound science behind it all. Humans are designed to be in light, the more light we get the more beneficial hormones we produce. The bulbs in these lights are not your ordinary flourescent tube, although they look like it. They throw out the amount of light equal to a bright sunny day. I only use it for 4 hours a day, in the morning and not too close to bedtime.

I am truely amazed that something so simple will get me throught the winter!! From today I will be giving myself a blast in the mornings to raise my spirits, stop me getting fatter and wake me up! If you are prone to SAD I recommend that you at least give it a try. They are not cheap, but there are light cafes you can sit in and if it helps, it just might be worth the cost of buying one.