When the alarm rings, on the way to work or on the way home: it is Always dark. The Winter can be cozy, but for some people it fails on the mood. Due to the darkness. There are, however, tools.
“Light is crucial for our mood,” explains Kneginja Richter, head of the sleep clinic at the clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Klinikum Nürnberg. “It provides for the release of various hormones that determine our emotional state.”
It is dark the body produces Melatonin, a hormone that makes you tired and at night for good sleep. It is on dull winter days, in the morning, not really bright and full of life, especially in the house, pours out of the body during the day, the sleep hormone. It is sluggish and tired.
Get up, go out
How someone reacts to the lack of daylight is different. According to surveys, claims 20 to 30 percent of the German on mood swings and bad mood in the cold Season.
However, “most of The depression in the Winter, no winter depression,” says Ulrich Hegerl, President and CEO of the Foundation German depression aid. “Largely, it is a classic depression, which occur in the Winter.”
The winter depression is a “Seasonal affective disorder” – a form of the disease, in addition to the connection to the Season-specific characteristics: “most of the time it comes, instead of lack of appetite and weight loss to increased appetite,” says Hegerl. “In addition, the Affected by the suffer from not under and sleep disorders. You sleep more than usual.”
However, not all people feel in the Winter, these symptoms, have a winter depression. Signs of this can be that can enjoy the Affected nothing more, and is permanently exhausted. This is often accompanied by feelings of guilt and hopelessness. Such symptoms occur in a self or family member, can make the family doctor, or in emergencies, a hospital for help. There is also a telephone for information on the topic of Depression, which can be reached under the number 0800/3344533.
In addition to the lack of light various other reasons for the bad mood come into question: “In the Winter, many people are a little melancholic. You might spend more time at home and less Outside distractions,” says Hegerl. “Maybe they’ll let the year pass and are thoughtful.”
According to the expert, it can reinforce the negative feelings also, if you sleep too long or too much time spent lying in bed. “It makes many people lazy and expresses the mood,” says Hegerl. To banish the winter Blues, it may, therefore, help to set the alarm especially early to sleep even if it is a paradox appears to be less, if you feel sluggish and lacking in motivation.
Light therapy
Can help, also a light therapy. A special lamp, which emits a very strong and bright light, to dispel the hazy feeling. “The best effect of the light therapy, immediately after Waking up,” says Kneginja Richter. “However, it is also possible for the lamp on the workstation to turn on, the best 60 minutes a day.”
Who would collect how much light depends on the place of residence. 21. December, the shortest day of the year, the sun rises in Sonthofen in the Allgäu, for example, already at 8.04 PM in Flensburg until 8.44 PM. And in the evening she goes in Sonthofen to 16.30 in Flensburg already at 15.57 PM. The overall difference of almost one and a quarter hours. The longer the day, the longer the sun may be shining – at least in theory.
In the Video: When the soul makes you sick
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