As Clocks Change, SAD-Afflicted Prepare for Set Back

The good news about moving the daylight savings time switch up three weeks to midnight of March 10 is that many of us will be able jog or bike in daylight when we get home from work. The bad news is that the light we enjoy in the evening is light we won't enjoy in the morning, and, scientists say, it's the morning light that sets our mood. For those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder, that early day mood set can make or break the way one feels for the rest of the day. The Los Angeles Times reports that besides a poor mood, symptoms of SAD include low energy, problems sleeping, fatigue, weight gain, reduced concentration and increased appetite, especially for carbohydrates. Michael Terman, director of New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, tells the Times that  about 3 percent to 5 percent of Americans have seasonal affective disorder, and an additional 15 percent to 20 percent of people experience a lesser form of the disorder, called winter doldrums or winter blues.
What to do? Paul Arbisi, a clinical psychologist at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center, suggests light therapy.  Also called phototherapy, it involves sitting under bright, artificial light emitted from a box or lamp for about 30 minutes a day — usually in the morning. the Times tells us that the treatment helps about 60 percent to 70 percent of people with seasonal affective disorder or winter doldrums.