As the days get darker and shorter during the cold winter months, it is important to recognise when this takes a toll on our mental health and mood.
Often during the festive season many find themselves ironically experiencing Seasonal Affective Depression (SAD), a type of depression that specifically occurs due to our reduced exposure to daylight. While it is often temporary, it can be a very isolating experience that should not be overlooked. Speaking with Fiona J Murray, she shared more on what SAD actually is and provided some much-needed advice on how to deal with it.
Fiona is a Student Wellbeing Advisor for the University of Sheffield’s Student Wellbeing Service, particularly in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and has a lot of experience and insight to offer. Her advice on dealing with SAD and low moods can be really helpful during the darker days:
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD or winter depression, is a subtype of depression that generally tends to form seasonal patterns. This is where people experience the symptoms in the colder months and an alleviation of these symptoms in the summer months.
What are signs/symptoms of SAD?
The symptoms are similar to those of clinical depression:
- Low mood
- A lack of motivation
- Sleep patterns being affected (sleeping more than usual)
Because of the time of year, people experience a change in appetite in terms of usual depression. For SAD, a lot of people tend to experience carvings of carbohydrate-heavy food or have a larger appetite generally.
Mood aspects are similar to clinical depression, the difference is if people are realising these symptoms tend to come in the darker winter months, and get better once we get to spring/summer.
Most people may not identify it as SAD until they see this pattern for a couple years. Once you acknowledge it, you can start thinking about prior to experiencing it and things you can do that can be helpful.
Does experiencing SAD for a couple years allow people to get used to it?
People may get used to it but the most common reason is people have found coping strategies, they may have meant to do this or they learn it over the years.
Components of SAD may still be there for some people, but they have found ways of managing it so it does not seem as debilitating.
Why do shorter days cause a toll on our mental health?
Theories about this that tend to centre around the idea that there is a lack of sunlight that causes changes.
- The part of our brain called the Hypothalamus.
Research has shown that during the shorter days when we are exposed to less sunlight, there are changes in the hypothalamus, where a lot of our hormonal changes come from. For example, melatonin production, which has to do with our sleep. If our body is overproducing melatonin, this is when we feel more tired than usual (which can be experienced as a symptom too).
- Our circadian rhythm
Our bodies generally work on a circadian rhythm, something that is largely driven by natural light. This dictates when we get higher cortisol levels. For example, this happens when we get up in the morning and feel rested. A lot of people experience a dip during the afternoon as cortisol levels decrease. If our exposure to natural light changes and we are exposed to less, this will mess up our circadian rhythm and people feel more exhausted than usual.
People may not know exactly why this happens but it is likely a combination of a lot of different changes in our brain that lead to the behavioural changes you see in SAD.
How can we deal with the shorter days during winter?
- Keeping up a good routine throughout the year
The importance of our circadian rhythm is that it likes routines. Even on shorter days when you may be tempted to sleep in or change your routine, it can be helpful to keep the same routine throughout the year.
- Taking supplements like vitamin D
When we are experiencing less natural light, vitamin D concentrations in our body are less. While we do not know the effects of this or if it leads to lower moods, for some people, it can be helpful to deal with the tiredness that comes with SAD.
- Light therapy
Buying SAD lamps online that have UV rays which mirror those that we get from the sun can be helpful for our circadian rhythm. If we are waking up earlier and it is dark out, we do not get natural cortisol production. Sitting with a sun lamp for 15 minutes can help to kickstart these natural processes in our bodies.
A lot of ways to deal with SAD has to do with helping with our biological processes, but a lot has to do with lifestyle processes too. This includes making sure things you do throughout the year gives you a sense of pleasure. Although you are struggling with low moods and a lack of motivation, having these constant and positive lifestyle habits can be really helpful.
Tips for brightening your mood on shorter/darker days?
- Behavioural activation (something people use in depression treatment)
Recognising when we experience low mood will affect our sense of motivation. Motivation is driven by the idea that ‘I am going to do this and it will make me feel really nice’. If we are struggling to get pleasure out of things, we can feel less motivated to do them. The idea of this is building things up in the sense of a routine, focusing on things which bring us the most pleasure. For example, spending time with friends, doing nice things for yourself and focusing on self-care.
- Consider re-prioritising doing nice things for yourself.
The idea with behavioural activation is it is something you build. Once you have the foundation of being motivated to do nice things and feeling better in terms of your mood, you can experience an increase in your performance academically. It may be a difficult period for academic studies but recognising your low moods affect this may be helpful to be more proactive in doing nice things for yourself. Also, making the most of the days when we have natural sunlight.
What are the contacts/resources available if students need to seek help?
- Talk to your GP
If you have identified what you are experiencing is SAD, talk to your GP. The UHS has a really good team who are really good with mental health and understand the additional pressures students are under. Talk to your GP if you recognise the patterns and you can start to have conversations around is it something that medication will be helpful for or talking therapies.
- Talking to somebody.
At the university, there are many different resources available. Firstly, there is the Student Mental Health Counselling Therapy team. Secondly, the Student wellbeing service. They have different resources to do with managing low mood. There is also a student blog which has articles with advice on noticing these changes and good next steps.
These are one on one options available but besides that, there is an NHS service available, ‘Sheffield Talking Therapies’. There are courses on low mood throughout the year, which can be a helpful space to learn more about depression and low mood and how to manage it. You can self refer to this, and there are 6 week courses online that can be easily found via their website.
