Let’s face it.  We all hate the cold, especially after a winter like the one we just experienced.  The cold makes us lose sunlight and warmth, and if you have ever found yourself refusing to get up during the winter, then you understand that sometimes you just can’t cooperate with life during the winter.

Well, you’re not alone.  In fact, the feelings that you may have during the winter might be hinting towards an issue that is larger than just a simple infection of procrastination.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, also appropriately known as S.A.D. or “winter depression”, is a form of Major Depressive Disorder that is only experienced during the winter.  Those who are afflicted by this disorder experience depressive symptoms such as a dramatic change in weight, an inability to wake up in the morning, and/or a general disinterestedness.

For a while there weren’t many ways to keep this sleeping monster at bay.  In recent LED lighting news, however, there has been research presented in which LED lights have been found to help thwart seasonal affective disorder.

This is mostly due to the human body’s response to sunlight and the lack it that we receive over the winter.  In order to help keep the depression at bay, a daily or even weekly application of LED-based light for about a half an hour has been proven to mitigate S.A.D.

There are a couple of reasons that explain why LED lights are used to reduce seasonal depression.

First of all, humans have a rhythm that they attune themselves to that defines when to go to sleep, when to be awake, and even when to be productive.  In case you haven’t heard of this rhythm before, it is commonly called your “circadian rhythm.”   In the winter, a person’s circadian rhythm can be thrown off drastically.  Think about it, you don’t get as much light as you do during the rest of the year.  It only makes sense that a person’s instinctual rhythm is thrown off when the sun only comes out for half the time that it used to.

Secondly, LED lights are easy to take with you.  Season affective disorder can turn up at any time throughout the day.  If you can carry the LED light with you, you will always have a treatment ready for when you are feeling the groggiest.

The best tool used to help S.A.D. in recent LED lighting news is called a Litebook LED and looks a little like this:

Simply by turning on these LED lights and facing them towards you every once in a while you will help keep a seasonal affective disorder from meddling with your life.  LED lights can reenergize you and make you as productive as you might be on a beautiful spring day.

Here is a link to the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1971065/