Out Like a Light: SAD and the Winter Blues
Our new infographic sheds light on Seasonal Affective Disorder and the amount of sunshine received by nine-to-fivers this December.
At the end of October we wrote a blog post about the very real problem of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and how debilitating it can be. We heard the stories of Teresa Evans and Kevin Knight who told us how much of a struggle the winter months can be for them and how much of an impact the season’s short days had on their lives. Kevin explained that in order to cope with SAD he has had to make significant changes to his daily habits just to ensure he was exposed to daylight at some point during his working week.
This made us wonder how much daylight any of us actually see during the winter and when we looked into it further we were shocked by what we found. On average, most nine-to-fivers in the UK are exposed to less than an hour’s worth of daylight outside their working hours during December: London workers see an hour and one minute while Glasgow’s working population only catches 20 minutes of daylight in the morning and none at all after 5pm. People in other countries suffer the same fate with New Yorkers picking up an hour and 48 minutes of sunlight a day in December while workers in Helsinki don’t see the sun at all during the festive season.
To raise awareness of SAD, First Choice have brought together statistics from sources such as SADA, SAD.org.uk, Bupa and the Mood Disorders Society of Canada to create this new infographic: Out Like a Light. In it you can find out how much daylight office workers receive year-round, as well as a collection of facts that can help you recognise and treat SAD. With December and the winter solstice drawing in we are certainly in for some short days in the coming weeks.
Do you have trouble fitting daylight into your winter lifestyle? How do you cope with the long dark, days of December and January?
Competition
Win your very own Lumie light! Lumie Light has offered us a Lumie Arabica lamp RRP £99.95 to one lucky winner who emails us the correct answer to the following question… What does SAD stand for?
Please email your answer to
blog@firstchoice.co.uk before 1 December for your chance to win.
Please note that the prize is non transferable and no cash alternative will be offered. Entrants must be 16 or over and all entries must be made before 1 December 2011.
This infographic was commissioned by First Choice.
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SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Thanks.
Very useful infographic. Especially the daylight hours info. Thanks.
I totally agree, i’ve been dealing with SAD for a while now and have struggled to get over it. Using photo therapy i’ve bee helped a lot