How to Cope With Fewer Hours of Daylight

11/10/2017 (Permalink)

Pay attention to the signs and avoid the winter blues

• Daylight saving time ends each Fall, at a time when sunlight hours are already declining.

Much of North America isn’t affected as much as countries further up north, but it’s still enough to make us feel a little down.

Here are a few ways to cope with darkness and see it in a different light.

• Be aware of SAD, Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that’s actually related to the change in seasons, beginning and ending about the same time each year. Symptoms usually start in the fall and continuing into the winter months. It may reduce a persons energy and make them fell really moody. SAD can get worse and lead to severe problems if it’s not dealt with. 
• Make daytime count. Spend more time outside when the sun is bright. When at lunch, sit by a window where the sun is shining in or talk a walk after eating.
• Socialize more. Instead of being cooped up indoors alone,  go to spots where local people gather indoors, like coffee houses, resturants or shopping malls. Just being with friends and family can get rid of the winter blues.

Exercise more. Using the darkness can be an excuse to excercise in a gym of fitness center, even if all you do is walk. Physical activies can relieve anxiety and depression, thus improving ones mood.

If a person developes the right attitude, the darkness of fall and winter may not send a person into the doldrums.