zlacker

I live in Norway, and used to have a big problem with SAD and longer-than-24-hour-cycles. I tried a few of the commercial lamps like he did, and my experience was similar. They helped some, but not enough.

My current solution is to take a 1 hour walk outside every day around noon. Also, I've stopped sitting in front of my computer or TV 3 hours within bedtime. Instead I usually spend my late evenings reading paper books.

This has solved the longer-than-24-hour-cycles and most of the SAD (it also seems to have completely cleared up my acne). However, on days when it's overcast and kinda dark, I still notice some SAD. On those dark days, the kind of lamp that he built probably would have been nice.

>>jensen+(OP)
Probably in days that's too overcast a good serving of fatty fish will help. Vitamin d3 is either synthesized from sun exposure or supplemented through diet, it is a good mood regulator.

>>kwelst+z1
While both are related to lack of day light exposure in the winter time, lack of vitamin D production is another issue, probably not related to SAD.

Regardless, a good reminder. Fish has also other health benefits. I'd still take some vitamin D supplement on top of that.

>>vardum+v2
Obviously this is purely anecdotal. I have the same habits as the author with respect to light exposure regulation. I live in England and take an hour walk every day around noon regardless of weather. At night I avoid computers for about two hours before bedtime and although I do not read paper books (I should find my local library...) I set a screen filter on my amoled phablet and often invert the text so it shows white on black. I exclusively use a red LED at night for lighting. This all helps a lot, bit the thing that seems most striking is vitamin D. Sometimes I feel down and realize I haven't had exposure to many sources for a while. A few days of heavy doses and my mood improves. I don't take it orally all the time, just as I imagine I need it. The effect is sublte but it would be cool if someone could figure out how to quanitfy.

As a result of all this care about light I haven't had a SAD winter for most of a decade. I feel "cured" of it enough that spending time in even more northerly places in the winter does not trigger unpleasant depression. That said, us northern peoples should slow down in the winter. Thousands of years of selection has driven this home, and it is nothing to be upset about. We will make up for the slowness of the winter in the long days of summer.

>>jensen+(OP)
Interesting, in Canada we're told that the angle made by the sun in winter in places at "high" latitudes (> 50) prevents us from getting the right kind of light/UV in the winter, and to compensate by taking daily supplements of vitamin D.

>>dorfsm+j7
You just need more sunlight. At tropical latitudes you get enough D in five minutes with only your face exposed. At northern latitudes it just takes longer, or you can expose more skin.

>>sliver+s8
Exposing more skin in winter at high latitudes isn't easy nor safe!

>>sliver+s8
If the sun is very low in the sky, no UVB radiation will reach you. The body needs the UVB radiation in order to produce vitamin D. I think a general rule of thumb is that if your shadow is longer than you are, then there is no UVB.