As a species, humans are energetic, clever beings. We have risen above all other creatures because of our ingenuity and our ability to think things through. To find solutions to our problems and create tools to help us with things we need to do. Our ingenuity and inventive nature has helped us overcome handicaps and diseases. As time and technology has gone on, we have discovered the causes of many of the different afflictions our race deals with.

This is the case with SAD or Seasonal Afflictive Disorder. We have found that people suffering from this are not people suffering from a depression only treatable by drugs, they are people specifically affected by the lack of sunlight during winter months, or any time where there are days that are overcast, rainy or in any other way darkened.

We have now found that we can interrupt this cycle of sadness with brightness. This brightness comes from full spectrum lighting that is meant to imitate the effects of sunlight on the human body, allowing such things as the metabolizing of vitamins. With this full spectrum lighting, a SAD sufferer can look forward to a day of brightness, and a real, genuine good outlook on life, rather than one created by ingesting artificial mood enhancers such as the drugs that were previously prescribed for this condition.

Like many other illnesses, Seasonal Affective Disorder has been around a long long time. Only recently have we started gaining in knowledge and understanding about it in the medical field. Generally people that suffered from SAD were said to be clinically depressed and clinically depressed people were always treated with mood altering drugs, kind of an artificial high that didn’t address the real underlying situation.

People that suffer from SAD are more highly affected by the lack of sunlight during the day. Because of this, winter tends to be very hard for them, they are likely to become depressed and detached during these times. They are likely to eat more comfort food which makes them gain weight which then adds to their depression in a vicious cycle. Now that there is an understanding of what they are going through, these people can finally get help from the medical field and not in the form of a pill.

The medical field has found that bright, full spectrum lighting has a very positive effect on these people. Prescriptions for SAD lighting are becoming more commonplace and people are beginning to spend many happy hours basking under these lights rather than taking mood altering pills. The lights help energize these people and raise their spirits so they can go about their daily lives without worrying about the dreary nature of winter.

Winter days can be long and dreary and often be followed by yet another day of dreariness and even another one after that. Winter feels like a low energy time of year and maybe that is why some animals hibernate, but we don’t have that choice. We must go about our business, feed ourselves, take care of our responsibilities and live our lives irrespective of the weather conditions.

Dreary winter days are characterized by lack of sunshine and some form of cloud cover, be it fog, an overall uniform thickness of clouds or dark imposing clouds. This may also be accompanied by drizzle or all out rain. All of this serves to put a very sad, depressed feeling to the world outside. It is only natural for this feeling to carry through to the world inside. Without the sun to brighten the world outdoors and to spill in through the windows of your home, your home is likely to take on that same dreary feeling. 

You can save yourself the depressing feelings caused by winter days by putting multi spectrum or full spectrum lighting in your house. This lighting will brighten up your home and give you the feeling of a sunny day. After basking in the light put out by these wonderful devices, you will feel more rejuvenated and brighter, more ready to face your day and all the responsibilities it holds for you.

Nocturnal creatures have no use for sunlight. They have large eyes to take in the dim and darkness of the world during the night time hours. They get their vitamins, minerals and whatever else they need from the diurnal creatures and plants they eat. Their bodily functions are not helped by the daylight hours in which they snooze away in the darkness of their burrows or caves.

We are diurnal creatures. We need the sunlight not only to survive, but also to feel well and healthy. In reasonable quantities, our bodies revel in the sunlight; it helps us with our ability to absorb certain vitamins. Sometimes life makes it so we are not able to get out in the sunlight as much as our bodies would like, either because of lifestyle or because of a long string of somber days. At times like this, our bodies may react to the lack of sunshine by putting us in somber, lazy, even depressed moods.

In the past, we have had no respite from the somber days, but technology has brought us a way to help our bodies get through. We now have multi spectrum or full spectrum lighting available that we can use anywhere. It comes so portable that you can carry it in your brief case or it can be a light that is installed in your home that you can bask under and read a book or just relax. This lighting is meant to have similar effects to the sun.