Can you get Seasonal Affective Disorder in a month? It’s been raining more or less since I moved to Oregon, which is fine on the whole, but this weekend it was perfect weather—body-temperature wind, sunshine, clear skies—and I was thrust into one of the most amazing moods I’ve had the pleasure of being buffeted by in a while. And now it’s raining again and I don’t want to get out of bed.
Do any of you guys have full-spectrum bulbs that you keep in lamps on your desk? I was thinking that perhaps they could help fight off the emotional doldrums while I wait for the summer to really get in a gear, but I didn’t know if their health effects were hooey or not.
(The photo of the hot Riviera doesn’t really have much to do with it, except I snapped it down at the coast this weekend and keep trying to find an excuse to share it.)
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This actually happens kind of frequently here. Not that it’s a real problem, but you do know that there are a lot of submission forms that will check that for you, right?
I’ve been thinking about getting one of those myself. There are no windows in my office, and the fluorescent lights are hell on my eyes. From my research it looks like there is some scientific backing to the whole S.A.D. thing.
You have to make sure that you either get a bulb that has a UV protective coating on it, or get some kind of glass (with UV protection) between you and it, most of them emit fairly high levels of UV and will fry you pretty quickly.
Try some vitamin D supplementation – studies show that it helps with SAD. Love those old road boats!
Joel, I don’t know if you can get it in a month, but one day can certainly lift you up, can’t it? I know when the sun comes out, sometimes I just stand there with it in my face. I’ve also been known to curl up on the floor with the dogs where the sun lays in the morning – it’s great.
The whole grey thing is definitely an issue with Oregon and around here. The upside is that the spring, summer and fall can be fantastic. Temperatures just right, no humidity, the beach about 1 hour away to the West and the mountains about 1 hour East.
Look at it this way, Joel – what’s it going to hurt if you [i]do[/i] buy one? If it doesn’t help, just buy a regular incandescent again the next time you have to replace bulbs.
I bought a Philips GoLITE to cure my SAD this past winter. I had trouble using it regularly but during the periods I did use it there was a noticeable improvement in my mood.
Vitamin D is also a good idea.
A couple of things:
1. In my experience, full spectrum lights will help a lot of people feel better when they have to do without sunlight. But you don’t even have to have them on all day (though you can). 15 minutes in the morning and evening will often be enough to reset your brain chemistry.
2. As a commenter said above, Vitamin D (which is actually more of a hormone than a vitamin) will help avoid SAD tendencies for many people. But you need to take enough of it, somewhere in the 1000 to 5000 units a day.
The vitamin D might take a little longer to kick in (though it’s a good idea anyway), and the light could make a dramatic difference. You just have to self-experiment to see.
Suffer throught the rain, or as I do, embrace it. Realize that when the amazing days happen, its only because of what you went through to get there. Now, I miss the rain more than I can say. Screw the lights, just consider altering perspective.
I prefer having my home lit with full spectrum bulbs – it seems more natural to me than the yellow hue of your typical incandescent. Perhaps that’s because my walls are a very light grey-blue.
Anyway, I’m pretty happy with my experience with them.
Another good thing in my life, as far as that goes, is that I work on the 5th floor of a building without many interior walls – all of the windows let in light, and it fills the place up with daylight on blue sky days like today.
I used full spectrum bulbs in almost all of the lights in my apartment, and it definitely helps me with the winter doldrums. On particularly gloomy days, read a book for 15-20 minutes directly under the light when you wake up, and just before bed. It’s refreshing.
I used one for the long cold and dark winters in Maine, and I have to say the bulbs are effective. Plus, it gives the room a cool alien glow.
EXT. BEACH. DUSK – THIRTY-ODD YEARS EARLIER
A starry sky. The camera tilts down to find palm trees swaying against a setting sun.
JEROME (VO)
I was conceived in the Riviera. Not the French Riviera.
The camera tilts down further to find a Buick Riviera parked in a deserted beachfront parking lot on a polluted stretch of beach.
JEROME (VO)
The Detroit variety.
Joel,
As a SAD sufferer (and MD student), here’s my $0.02. You wouldn’t “get” SAD in a month – in a sense you’ve had it all along and just haven’t been in a situation where it has affected you. The symptoms can definitely develop over the course of month. I’m sorry to hear that it has become a problem, but I do think light can help.
A full-spectrum bulb by itself is worth trying, but don’t hold your breath. A therapeutic dose of light therapy is something on the order of 10,000 lumens at 18 inches distance for a typical light. That’s a lot. Some research has shown that blue light can be just as effective at lower overall brightness, but that hasn’t been my personal experience.
I have had good experience with a light box. I got mine from Apollo Health, but there are plenty of other options out there. As an occasional DIYer I choked at the prices (hundreds) for what is essentially a box with a light bulb inside, but it is slightly more complicated than that (UV filters are important!). With a physician’s note it is also sometimes possible to convince your insurance to chip in, too.
You get the best results from a light box if you use it first thing in the morning for 15-30 minutes (I need 45 for my smaller “travel” light). You have to position it in your line of vision – the mechanism of action has nothing to do with Vitamin D (as people used to think) but rather with a brain structure called the suprachiasmic nucleus, which is connected to the optic nerve and thus the eyes. You don’t have to stare at it, but it needs to be prominently in your vision. I usually put the box right next to my monitor and use it when I first check my email in the morning. I definitely notice a difference.
Anyway, kudos to you for being sufficiently self-aware to recognize the problem (it took me a long time), and good luck with finding a solution! Feel free to be in touch if you have any questions. I’m not a doctor (at least not yet), but I have been dealing with SAD for the better part of my life.
Cheers,
Mike
Twitter:bradymikep
A guy at work here uses one – when you walk by his cubicle it just about blinds you. He swears by it. I think the effectiveness really depends on your exposure time, he’s in his cubicle a good 9 hours/day.
I have full spectrum fluorescents in my home here in Portland to combat the doldrums. This past weekend was glorious…btw…but a cruel reminder was Tuesday afternoon when the sun went bye bye.
;-(
Blue-tarp camper guy here… I bring my own blue skies with me, but oddly enough, I don’t insure my stuff through Pemco. I keep my spirits up by knowing that as long as it’s raining in town, it’s likely snowing above 7000′. Full spectrum bulbs definitely have a positive effect on my behavior when I’m around them, but I’ve only once replaced all of the bulbs in my apartment (in retrospect, I should’ve brought the bulbs with me when I moved). Not that it’s really all that detrimental, because like Zoopyfunk, I’ve trained myself to embrace the climate.
Er I meant 10,000 lux, not lumens. For most light boxes that translates to a distance of 12-18″. The engineer in me is now satisfied.
Most ‘full spectrum’ bulbs are just incandescents with a filter that removes the yellow so that they seem more blue.
Light color makes a big difference for me. My work shop has no windows, so over the benches I use 2 X 48″ fluorescent bulb fixtures with one regular soft white and one a good quality plant/aquarium light. Brightness is important as well. Many rooms, especially large ones, are under-lit. Just upping the wattage can make a difference. Good luck.
Joel – my girlfriend has SAD, and in the winter months uses a full spectrum light for about 30 minutes a day while she eats breakfast, checks her email, etc. I definitely notice an improvement in her mood, and can tell when she misses a day. I read above that it doesn’t work for everyone, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, amirite? She uses a lightbox specifically made for such a thing – not sure of make or model, but it wasn’t cheap. If you can get diagnosed with SAD by your doctor, insurance may cover it, it covered hers.
So, what you’re saying is that Oregon has the color gamut of most recent FPS games?
I moved to Eugene this winter and have to say the cloudy days were dragging me down for a while too. I have a small full spectrum light box in my office that I try to sit in front of for 15 minutes in the morning or over lunch and I haven’t really felt that affected by the gloom since then.
You might also want to consider the fairly high pollen levels as a factor in why you might not want to get out of bed today. I’m pretty sure it is the reason I rolled out of the sack four hours later than normal today.
Lots of people in the NW get that way after a short spell of unseasonably awesome weather ends and it’s back to the gray rains.
I wouldn’t necessarily attribute it to SAD, but rather a sort of “last day of summer break” type of thing.
Maybe a lamp will help, maybe not. Perhaps you should contact some manufacturers and request a few models “for review”.
Well Joel, I can’t help you with the diagnosis, but if you want to try light-therapy to combat S.A.D., here is how to make your own lightbox. The light doesn’t have to be full spectrum, “normal” CFLs work just fine, but you have to get about 5-10000 Luxhours of illumination each day for it to work.
That car is sweeeet! Reminds me of the car my Mom drove around when we were kids… even the same color! Wonder if it has the cool shoulder belts that dropped down from the ceiling.
Ahhh, memories.
After I had been working swing shift (3pm-midnight) for four months, with my only time in daylight being the 45-minute drive to work, I became horrifically depressed. On the advice of a friend, I put full-spectrum bulbs in my ceiling fan’s light fixtures, and spent at least 6 hours under them every night (I generally went to sleep about 7am in those days). I felt a heck of a lot better after about a week.
I don’t know if it was placebo or not. Your mileage may very.
Some people also seem to be more affected by seasonal affective disorder.
As a PDX ex-pat, I found nothing beat the real thing. Luckily central Oregon is sunny year round. Get out to Smith Rock!
As someone who grew up in the northwest and who has a generous helping of british and scandinavian genes, I’ve always greatly preferred cool, overcast weather with occasional rain over hot, sunny weather. I just don’t get why people are so infatuated with wanting sunny weather all the time, it’s hot and miserable – especially when you then have to be inside with no A/C :p
Allegedly eating any variety of Pacific Salmon, hugely available out here (OR, WA, B.C.), provides enormous amounts of Vitamin D.
And yes, those four days of sun up here (Seattle) seems to have ‘broken the spell’ — even the cloudiness today isn’t the same as before the weekend.
My naturopath friend says you need 15 minutes of sunlight a day on 40% of your body (basically you wearing shorts & t-shirt exposes 40%) to get the Vit-D you need. Some believe sunlight is actually an irreplaceable nutrient.
This lamp is popular in my office.
From one Oregonian to another:
Get out of the house.
The forest drips with life energy when it’s wet. Go soak some up. Get your hiking boots muddy.
You’ll feel better.
Over here in the UK I’ve dealt with a company called Lumie who manufacture a light that helps athletes in the winter so they don’t succumb to the effects of SAD by mimicking the effects of the sun. Their website is pretty informative and as far as I’m aware they can help. The lights can be a little pricey though.
I lived in Portland for a while, the rain never bothered me.. but then I grew up in Alaska, and I never got SAD up there either.
The upside to all that rain is that Oregon has some of the most beautiful summers on the planet. Not to hot, not too cold, and you’ll go for weeks without a cloud in the sky.
There’s no advice in this post, other than suggesting you suck it up and be comforted by the fact that there will be a respite soon.
I’ve found them to be really useful. A SAD lamp can be found pretty cheap and really fifteen minutes in the morning does do an amazing amount. it’s like sitting in the first good sun of spring (which is actually today here in CT).
Good luck!
I lived in Oregon for a year, which was aparently one of the wettest winters on record. That’s saying a lot. In 4 months, there were 3 days when it didn’t rain. Not that those were sunny days, mind you, there just wasn’t active precipitation.
I survived it via a little mind trick — I stopped looking at it as being “rained on,” and started looking at it was being “watered.”
Joel,
Hoping you pull through. I found that many immigrants to Willamette valley often get pretty down (wait till you go through the entire rainy season, starting in October).
Luckily you are coming to some of the nicest weather on the earth (except for a couple relatively miserable hot days in July and August, which are cakewalks compared to what I currently suffer through in NYC).
One thing that I think makes a difference, is that most of the natives, don’t stop going out when it gets rainy. You ask most Oregonians what they do when it rains, they will tell you, “I get wet.” It may be cloudy, but you are still getting out into the light.
Stay on the bike, don’t ever put away the shorts (except maybe for welding), and never ever stare directly into the sun because you have forgotten what it was.
-Shlep
Nice car! That’ll brighten your day!
I suffer from self-diagnosed SAD. I try to treat it with snowboarding, but can’t get out very often, so that’s not a good approach. You have Mt. Hood nearby, so try it, might help.
I am an illustrator and in the decades that my work was done by hand, I often had to work late, late, late. It was depressing. I bought full-spectrum bulbs for my lamps over the drawing board and found they really helped with feeling run-down from the night work. That is not scientific, but I don’t care what the cost–I’m not letting my wife switch the bulbs for CFLs.
Another benefit of the full-spectrum bulbs is that their use means that in the morning you can still respect the colors you used last night.
It takes 6-9 months to get used to Oregon’s weather. And by ‘used to’, I mean looking out at the rain and determining whether it’s t-shirt, hoodie, or trench coat rain.
(s), Mary Sue
you’ll get used to it. All part of being an Oregonian. Eventually you’ll begin to miss the rain.:-)
I got a lamp that takes half an hour to fade in and half an hour to fade out — For what it’s worth, it really, really helps me get through the winter, might help you make it through the gloom.
I have heard a LOT of stuff about SAD and light.
There are those that say pretty much any bright light will help with SAD. So you could just get any fluorescent fixture, set it up near your head, and sit under it for a half-hour every morning when you first get up.
The BEST Color Rendering Index bulbs are the Philips TL-950. They have a CRI of 98. They only come in 48″, T-8 tubes. You’ll need to buy a fixture/ballast that can run the tubes, because T-8 is not the standard “home” size (T-12). You can build a fixture yourself.
Some people were recently selling LED-powered caps. They used a “special” 505 nm color — which happens to be the color of green traffic signals. You can get a traffic signal on eBay, which can be run off 110 V.
Read this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28795094/
…essentially they say that the bulbs are worthless.
i don’t know much, but i know that as an artist on a vampire schedule, sitting in my studio at night under my drafting light felt like i was in prison. BUT when i outfitted my rig with some full spectrum lights and added more light to the studio in general, it did wonders for my general mood, when my spastic sleep schedule and the weather would wreck my ability to catch much actual sunlight. Nowadays. i have a giant window for actual sunlight, and a load of lights to fill in the gaps when i can’t get that. The awesome nature view doesn’t hurt, either, i guess, but i’m no urbanite, so this is my element anyway.
-T
Light therapy has never been proven to work even though the idea makes sense. The only known effective treatment for SAD is antidepressants.
Hey, I have one of those full-spectrum desk-lamp. I haven’t noticed myself getting SAD, and I lived in raing Seattle for a few years, though I actually tend to like the misty not-rain and the crisp smell of the clouds. The diffused lighting also makes it easier to photograph people outside.
I like the full spectrum lamp not because it helps with SAD, but more because it reproduces colors acurately. Great for drawing, and things look the same across my sketchbook and my displays.
I had a full spectrum light when I lived in Massachusetts, and it definitely helped during the winter.
For actual therapeutic effect, you really need something that outputs about 10,000 lux. A full spectrum reading light won’t do it.
Take a look at http://www.northernlighttechnologies.com/, they’re the guys I bought from. Their lamps are ugly and industrial looking, but cheap and effective.
I stopped needing the light when I moved to Texas, and sold it.
Joel,
There was an old man living down the street from where I grew up who we called Mad Jack who drove a boattail Riviera. He seemed to us to be kind of a 6 AM dive bar kind of guy and tended to drive home smashed. And by smashed, I also mean that he demolished trash cans, retaining walls and at one point the front of his house on early afternoon. The Buick was remarkably unscathed until he took out the house. How will the new Chinese Buicks fare in an America still delightfully full of Mad Jacks?
- bob