Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Less light throws the inner rhythm off — morning light is therefore the most obvious help.
Also known as: seasonal affective disorder · winter blues · SAD
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Some people regularly feel more down, tired and low on drive during the dark season than in summer. These seasonal low moods are linked to the lack of light in autumn and winter, which affects our sleep-wake rhythm and mood. Typical are an increased need for sleep, more appetite (often for sweets) and a sense of heaviness that usually lifts on its own with the brighter days of spring. Much can be well eased — above all plenty of daylight. The good news is that this form of low mood has a clear, understandable trigger and is very approachable. An important distinction: if the low mood becomes very deep, persists regardless of season, or dark thoughts appear, it should be taken seriously and supported like any depression.
Get out in the morning, walk in daylight; light-therapy lamps help many.
Regular wake times and outdoor activity steady the mood.
A bit more need for rest in winter is normal — no reason for self-blame.
With deep or lasting low mood, seek medical/psychological support.
Light therapy works through the eye on the internal clock, not through the skin: ten thousand lux, in the morning, twenty to thirty minutes, within the first hour after waking. The effect sets in after one to two weeks and lasts as long as the lamp is used. Vitamin D does not replace it — it works by a different route.
About one to three in a hundred people are affected in a marked form, considerably more in a mild one; more often the further north. Symptoms usually begin in October or November and end in March or April — that yearly pattern over at least two years is part of the classification. Light therapy at 10,000 lux needs thirty minutes a day, within the first hour after waking, and works in most people within one to two weeks.
The dark season affects rhythm and mood — an understandable cause.
More need for sleep, more appetite (often sweet), heaviness — improves in spring.
Because the trigger is clear, one can act in a targeted way.
Very deep, year-round low mood or dark thoughts → take seriously like depression, seek help.
A lack causes exhaustion, problems concentrating, low mood and forgetfulness — and it is one of the few causes that can be found and put right with a single blood draw.
Low values are common with low mood. Whether correcting it lifts the mood is not settled; that it makes sense in winter at our latitudes is.
An empty store causes tiredness, lack of drive and problems concentrating long before any anaemia becomes visible. In women of childbearing age the most common single reason.
A building block of the cell coverings in the brain. The studies on mood are inconsistent; as part of a good diet it belongs there anyway.
Needed for making the messengers in the brain. It runs short with alcohol and under certain medicines — and it is always judged together with B12.
Obvious, since both hang on light — the studies on mood are nevertheless inconsistent. 20–50 µg (800–2000 IU) a day through the winter is the usual frame; light therapy at 10,000 lux for 30 minutes in the morning has clearly better data.
Effective in many studies for mild to moderate depression — 900 mg extract a day over 6 weeks. The catch lies elsewhere: it speeds the liver breakdown of the pill, blood thinners, immunosuppressants and antidepressants.
With seasonal lows it is about the shifted body clock: 0.5 mg in the late afternoon is what is studied, not the usual sleep dose in the evening. Timing decides more than amount here.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
In the dark months the release begins earlier and ends later — the inner winter lasts longer than the outer day. That is exactly where light therapy in the morning acts.
Daylight lifts the availability of this messenger, darkness lowers it. That also explains the craving for carbohydrates that belongs to this picture.
In winter the value falls in almost everyone. It does not explain the mood on its own but belongs to basic supply — and it does not replace light therapy.
North of the Alps the sun is not enough for the body’s own production in these months. Whether supplementing lifts winter mood is inconsistent — a measured deficiency is worth correcting regardless.
Craving sweet and starchy food is typical of seasonal lows and belongs to the picture. Wholegrain and pulses satisfy it longer than white flour — there is no need to forbid it.
Moving outdoors combines light and activity — both act along the same path.