Winter blues combat 💪
It's that time of the year again when everyone argues about whether they gain or lose an hour of sleep 🤷♀️
This is our third winter in the UK, and yet I am again surprised by how my mood gets impacted by the seemingly unending darkness. One thing I took for granted, having lived only in Hong Kong and Sydney before, was the steady supply of daylight 🌞through the seasons.
I was aware of the effect seasonal affective disorder (SAD) had on population residing in high latitude locations, but the association I made was with countries within close proximity to the North Pole ☃, such as Norway & Finland, instead of the UK. When we first relocated here, I laughed and dismissed it as a hyperbole when someone shared their medical diagnosis 🩺 of vitamin D deficiency the previous winter.
Last year I read Why We Sleep 😴, a brilliant book by Matthew Walker and learnt a few useful tricks through understanding the basic science behind circadian rhythm & biochemistry 🧪. Armed with my newfound knowledge on serotonin & melatonin, I gained a productivity boost through conditioning my sleep cycle. Now though, I have hit a wall. These days I struggle to get out of bed until after sunrise. Often I lack the motivation to work out on the weekend at late afternoon. The general idea of being productive while dark out 🌃 simply does not agree with my brain.
Last year we visited Stockholm in the middle of winter with only 4-5 hours of daylight daily. Along with being jetlagged flying in from Asia, we simply couldn’t get out of bed when every time we looked outside it was pitch black. (Bitter coldness on the other hand seemed bearable by comparison, as one could layer up 🔥.) I concluded I lacked the mental strength to live in a place like that.
To alleviate the seasonal dread, I researched over the past weekends and made the below adjustments:
Nothing beats natural sunlight, but serotonin production can be ‘hacked’ to an extent. In my working space, I replaced the LED lightbulb 💡 in my floor lamp from a 14W warm white to a 27W cool white one (Colour temperatures do make a difference!). The room is now brightly lit regardless of time of day. (Fun fact 🐣: During university I had a retail job 🛍 at Beacon Lighting. There’s more I know about lights than I’d care to admit.)
I purchased a portable SAD lamp, which emits up to 10000 lumens 🔆, to give myself a little light therapy 💆♀️. All I have to do is prop it up for an hour or so on the side, while I work. There is no need to sit and stare at it. Not ready to review this gadget yet, but I shall report back in due course. Hopefully it yields results, and can assist with future jetlag ✈ issues.
This is going to sound elementary, but I had forgotten that glass filters out UVB which means sitting by the window with light pouring in 😎 does nothing for vitamin D production. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to fatigue among other symptoms. Local health authorities recommend a daily supplement intake between October & March. I started taking a small dosage 💊 to help lift the mood.
With COVID still at large, this winter is going to be tough for many. I hope others can benefit from the practical inexpensive tricks I shared here. Would love to hear your set up too!
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Love this post Christine! So honest and real. Im writing this from bed and it’s still dark outside. I was just telling my cousin this weekend that I’m okay with the drop in temperature during winter. It’s the getting-dark-at-4:30pm that I can’t take.
The mental impact of Covid is like a leaking pipe underground. You won't notice it until the rupture starts to burst. Sydney is far better. The number of cases is not alarming. To avoid being overwhelmed by the solitude, we invited friends to come and gather less than 2 weeks ago. Not everyone came. Some still treated covid with caution. Again, we organize another one next Thursday. This time there will be 4 families. I have ordered a red bean green tea cake from a Korean cafe that makes very beautiful cakes. Then we would cook some dishes like 胡椒豬肚豬肺湯, 蝦膠醸涼瓜, 牛肋骨燜柚皮, 墨魚飛魚籽炒飯. To use mouth-watering cuisine to drive out melancholic feelings is also my best shot.