Looking for a good reason to spruce up your condo this winter? How about improving your mental health? This is the time of year when up to 20 per cent of people experience the winter blues or SAD – seasonal affective disorder. Surprisingly, it is most commonly onset in urban dwellers and people who are in their early 20s.
SAD is characterized by regularly occurring episodes of depression during fall and winter, including increased desire for sleep, a bigger appetite, weight gain and irritability. It’s unclear what exactly causes it, but studies indicate that the disorder is connected with light exposure.
Brighten your mood this winter by filling your condo with light. Here are some ideas to make sure you’re getting maximum exposure:
Uncover windows and use gauzy drapes to allow light in all the time or add mirrors on walls to reflect the rays. Hang a large mirror on an angle or buy a few small mirrors and arrange them in an interesting pattern.
Invest in special light bulbs – available for any home fixture – that emit light comparable in intensity to the light emitted by the rising or setting sun.
For a serious approach to getting enough light, you may rent or buy a specially designed “light box.” Fixtures that offer 2,500 to 10,000 “lux” are about 10 to 20 times brighter than average indoor light levels. By sitting in the presence of it for 30 minutes each morning, you may feel a difference in your mood.
Try a technique called dawn simulation. With this system, an incandescent light in your bedroom is set to a timer. It comes on before sunrise and slowly increases in brightness.
Use light to decorate. A pendant light over that chair by the window creates a cozy area for reading or relaxing. Recessed lights are good choices for lighting artwork in fixed placements, accenting walls or spotlighting a plant in the corner. Track lights can add accent light to a space using a single existing power source in the ceiling.
Though this seems to go against the tenet of getting the most light possible, invest in heavy drapes or room darkening shades for your bedroom to keep out urban “light pollution.” Just as not enough light can affect your health, so can not getting enough true darkness.
Whatever your solution to bring more light into your life, it fortunately doesn’t have to be long-term. SAD typically disappears with the advent of milder weather and sunnier days.
This entry was posted
on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under On the Inside.
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