More sunlight and longer days are good news for those struggling with Seasonal Affective Disorder. (Teena Monteleone/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Sunlight on the rise to help those with SAD

Mar 31, 2022 | 5:00 PM

With daylight hours now outnumbering nighttime, you might feel a little extra spring in your step and an improvement in your mood. For most, an increase in sunlight is a welcome boost, but it can be a gigantic relief for those suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, SAD typically sets in during the late fall and early winter. It shows many of the same symptoms as major depression, including changes in appetite, lack of energy, sleep problems, and feelings of uselessness or hopelessness.

“For some people, when they have a diagnosis of that, what happens is the less sunlight they get, the more impacted they are,” said Doug Kinar, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Prince Albert. “Sunlight produces vitamin D, which is a vitamin that’s used toward anti-depression for lack of a better word.”

There are supposed to be 13 hours and one minute of daylight today with sunrise at 6:36 a.m. and sunset coming at 7:37 p.m. This means people with SAD don’t have to resort to other methods of getting the necessary vitamin D like they often do in the winter months.

“Use an ultraviolet light with the proper spectrum because there are lots of different ultraviolet lights and only certain parts of the spectrum have that impact on your vitamin D production,” Kinar said.

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Making a conscious effort to be outdoors and use the sunlight that’s available is an important part of dealing with SAD, but the cold weather can sometimes discourage that. So far, March hasn’t been too helpful on that front.

“This years is unique,” Kinar said. “In past years, we were warming up quite a bit and the snow was disappearing. This year has a heavy snowfall and in fact March was terrible all the way through March for snow. So it’s making a bigger impact on not being able to get outdoors as much. Even though we have increased sunlight, we have decreased exposure to that sunlight.”

Kinar added SAD can affect people who work indoors with no windows or who work underground regardless of what time of year it is. He also said some people find their mental health affected negatively during the summer, but these cases are rare.

Tomorrow, Prince Albert is expected to gain an additional minute of sunlight with sunset coming at 7:38 p.m.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP