With a 16 year old son about to take important school exams I was interested in this recent article about light therapy helping teenagers sleeping habits A bright idea to get teenagers switched on and out of bed.

Like a lot of teenage boys my son likes to stay up late playing video games and then tiredness sets in when he’s meant to be studying!

But the article explains

“At the most crucial stage in their academic life many teenagers show obvious symptoms of sleep deprivation such as appearing groggy and grumpy or even falling asleep in class, but they will probably also under performing in school activities and tests, especially those taking place in the morning.

The reason is far more fundamental than late night Play Station games and, to be fair to them, it is not their fault. During puberty the body clock of a teenager shifts fundamentally so that they can be incapable of getting to sleep before the early hours and cannot function normally before noon.”

And it seems that light therapy may help as this “can reset the teenage body clock in just 15 and 30 minutes if used as soon as they wake up. Leaving them fired up and ready to tackle the day ahead”.

The article is advertising one particular type of light therapy : the Litebook but I assume that all other types would work too.

Worth a try if your children have a real problem that is affecting their studies?

Bit old news this (from the end of 2005) but I’ve just come across it and it fascinated me. Rattenberg, near Innsbruck in Austria sits so much in the shadow of the Rat mountain that it gets very little light in winter. It’s not that uncommon in the Tyrol region as many towns and villages were built on the dark side of mountains to help shield themselves from attack.

But there’s an interesting project going on in Rattenberg to cope with the lack of light that many of the residents suffer from. The town is planning on installing 30 specialized rotating mirrors (heliostats) designed by a company who specalises in lighting design (Bartenbach Lichlabor) to reflect sunlight into the town in winter. The town will get help from the EU who will pay half the $2.4 million cost of the project.

Now with my trusty calculator I make that more than $5400 a resident for the population of just 440. Maybe they should just invest in communal light boxes or offer them to every household. I wouldn’t like to be paying their council tax or whatever the local income tax is over there!

Anyway it will be interesting what the effect is this winter when the project is finished and see if the rate and seriousness of Seasonal affective disorder is reduced in the population. It may not even help that much as SAD is partly caused by staying indoors more in winter….but it will be a great tourist attraction anyway.

For more information see Mirrors shed light as winter grips small town 

It seems Californian residents are experiencing SAD-type problems due to an exceptional number of gloomy days for the time of year. It has rained almost every day for weeks, which must be tough if you are used to almost wall-to-wall sunshine.

Apparently it is producing a low mood among the general population in the area as well as affecting individuals who are susceptible to Seasonal Affective Disorder. See more details in articles Mental health experts’ tactics for rain blues and Lack of sun have you feeling glum?

I wonder if it makes a difference what kind of weather you are used to. Maybe we adapt a bit to a sunnier or cloudier climate after living in it for a while unless we have serious problems with SAD.

I know that here in Scotland a bright day makes everybody much more cheerful and grey skies and rain make everyone a little grumpy at times but we still keep going through the grey and rain in both winter and summer. (At least the rain is warmer in summer!)

I lived in the South of France for a year as a student and almost always felt cheerful because of the sunshine - maybe it takes a little longer to adapt and get used to it!

Although the effectiveness of therapy with white light has proven very effective for seasonal affective disorder, research continues into the effect of different types of light on our body and hormonal systems.

There are cells in our eyes called ganglions which have little to do with seeing, but send signals to our brain and help regulate our systems. A few hundred of these ganglion cells contain a light-sensitive protein called melanopsin, that helps convert light into an electrochemical signal which eventually reaches the pineal gland, in the centre of the brain.

Research at Jefferson University has shown that staring at a blue light for 90 minutes for example causes the pineal gland to stop production of melatonin. Blue light it seems helps keep us alert and some hospitals use this in nurses stations to stop medical staff feeling sleepy through the night while using more red/yellow based light in patient areas.
For more information see Eye Cells that don’t see, but Regulate

According to a recent report on a study by the Black Dog Institute (published in the Journal of Affective Disorders) chocolate doesn’t help fight depression.And bad news for those who like to think of chocolate as a comfort food it may very well make you feel worse after eating it by actually prolonging your depression.

Although the momentary indulgence and the whole emotional feeling linked to eating chocolate may make you feel good the pleasure lasts only as long as the chocolate stays in your mouth.

You can read the full report Mood states effect of chocolate or see this article Is chocolate an anti-depressant for a good summarised version.

Eating fast-release carbohydrates like chocolate, sweets and cake are a typical symptom of Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is a form of subconscious self-medication - an attempt to raise low Serotonin levels in the brain - yet eating this type of food generally sets up a craving for more resulting in the typical weight gain experienced by SAD sufferers in winter.

If you want to avoid the whole cycle, it’s better to go for slow release carbohydrates and keep off the chocolate - at least as much as you can!

Now that spring is returning to the Northern hemisphere, those with Seasonal Affective Disorder will start feeling better but according to Warm weather, sunshine help dispel winter blues it’s important not to get too much too soon.

According to the article, this is because for some people too much sunshine too soon can lead to hyperactivity and hypertension.

This is often described as hypomania or spring fever - a tendency towards being bipolar with rapidly changing spring weather. And much milder symptoms of this are probably the tendency many of us get around now to visit garden centres and DIY stores in a sudden burst of enthusiasm which soon disappears once we have forked out a load of cash for the goods and need to actually do the work!

Anyway if you do have tendencies towards really going over the top in spring the article advises building up your exposure to sunnier weather gradually starting with 20 minutes a day.

The problem is getting the right balance when the weather has the tendency to change rapidly from  one day to the next : gloomy to sunny and back again. Just as well there’s light therapy to help fill the gaps on the gloomy days.

According to Money, sun make Aussies a happy bunch a stable democracy, mild winters and a high standard of living contribute to making Australians some of the happiest people on earth.

It’s not surprising that weather makes such a difference to the happiness rating index in Australia with Seasonal Affective Disorder being prevalent in so many countries further away from the equator which have much gloomier weather.

It’s a wonder the people here in Edinburgh can smile at all! (Pure jealousy about sunnier climes :))