The Summer Solstice and SAD syndrome
On the Summer Solstice, which occurs on June 21, the Sun is at its highest path through the sky and the day is the longest. Because the day is so long the Sun does not rise exactly in the east, but rises to the north of east and sets to the north of west allowing it to be in the sky for a longer period of time.Or, to put it in more simple terms, soon the nights will be drawing in. The best of the year has gone.
After the summer solstice the Sun follows a lower and lower path through the sky each day until it reaches the point where it is in the sky for exactly 12 hours again. This is the Fall Equinox. Just like the Spring Equinox, the Sun will rise exactly east and set exactly west on this day and everyone in the world will experience a 12 hour day. (source)
The Crippen children fall about laughing when I say things like this. Their summer holidays have not yet started and for them the summer is yet to come. But, once again, I am in the hinterland of SAD syndrome. The children are similarly amused on 21st December when, in the gloomy depths of mid-winter, I perk up and announce that soon the days will be getting longer.
I am not really mentally ill (I hope) and SAD syndrome does not seriously affect my life. Some are not so lucky, and have real problems. But it does affect me a little.
I can remember as a small child being baffled when my grandmother said, as she frequently did, “the nights are drawing in/out”.
“So what?” I used to think.
Now I understand and with each year, as I get older, it becomes more and more important.
It must be a feature of age.
Labels: sad syndrome, summer solstice
24 Comments:
Ah, how cheering to see one of those wonderfully unhelpful "science" diagrams. Is astronomy even more boring than motor racing?
I hope it isn't an age thing - long, bright days really affect my mood, and I'm only in my mid twenties. The part I really resent is that it's light at 5 in the morning, when I can't use it. Ho hum.
What do you think of the UV bright lights, John? Last time I looked there seemed to be some actual Cochrane reviews suggesting they might help (for SAD and even for non-seasonal mild depression).
I bought one (they are about 100 quid VAT free if you declare it is a "medical device") but I forget to turn in on. It seems to have a placebo effect by sitting on my bookshelf.
The downside has been that having bought it from an Online "Alternative Health" site I now get blizzarded with adverts for biofeedback machines, q-link pendants and other stuff Cherie Blair might buy.
It will be interesting to see if Dr Crippen becomes more "tetchy" as the nights draw in.
Shall we monitor him ??
Jeremy
Moi?
Tetchy?
Never!
John
Argh! Don't say it's an age thing! SAD is bad enough now and I'm only in my early 20's.
The ironic thing is I'm far worse now I live further south, despite winter nights being up to 2 hours shorter.
I miss the really long summer days, it was properly dark before 11pm here tonight. At home it doesn't get properly dark at all. There's nothing like going for a long walk along a deserted beach in the half light of the early hours of the morning.
Gah, I wanna go home!
f
Many quacktitioners will proffer lights and supplements to effect a cure . . .
Hey Dr. Crippen,
I'm a long-time reader, but this is my first comment.
You made the CTV (Canadian news agency) news today!
They were talking about the dangers of free-birth, and I was thinking "wouldn't Dr. Crippen be pleased to hear this", and then they mentioned you!
Just thought you'd like to know.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070621/freebirth_070621/20070621?hub=CTVNewsAt11
link to CTV article
ImpatientPatient
John - As it is now after midnight and the longest day has passed, can I be the first person to wish you a very Happy Christmas
Trevor :-)
To me it's "gosh, the evenings are going to get shorter from here on in, and I STILL haven't got round to an evening ice-cream on the beach/in the park!"
But at least we've got a good couple of months of "warm" to go as yet.
It seems to me that the days get shorter in the mornings, if that makes any sense, so we can look forward to a few more weeks of long, warmish, evenings.
As a naturally early riser, I love the daylight at 4.30 in the morning. But equally, I love it still being light at 9.30pm.
One of the Consultant Psychiatrists up here has a simple (tongue in cheek) screening test for SAD:
1. Do you have brown eyes?"
2. Do you eat more chocolate in Winter?
He has this theory that people with darker eyes are more susceptible to SAD due to the amount of light that enters your eyes or something (obviously, not an ophthalmologist...) and obviously, if you're a wee bit down, then you'll be eating more chocolate.
This is also the same chap that thought one of his successfully treated patients with schizophenia was again psychotic, after having an illusion/hallucination of seeing Stephen Fry in the canteen. Obviously, this was during the filming of his bipolar documentry when the man himself was visiting one of our profs...
Oh, you northern hemisphere-centrics - What on earth are you talking about?
For the rest of the world, its winter solstice.
A balmy 18degC down here today.
Dr Crippen, join the hordes of your junior colleagues and head down under. You know you want to.
Last one to leave - turn the lights out please...
One of the great things about living in Edinburgh is that at this time of year it's not proper dark till 11pm ish. The daylight pouring in at 4am is a bit of a pisser, but I had shutters made for the bedroom.
The downside is that once the clocks go back it's not light till 9am and it's dark again by 4pm.
There was something in the paper the other week about a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and heart disease - Scotland's heart disease rates are not all to do with our diet of deep fried pizza and macaroni pie, but partly to do with the lack of light in winter.
My theory about SAD is that we haven't yet evolved to be awake in winter. We've only had artifical light for a couple of hundred years (ish) and I reckon most people went to bed in the dark and got up in the light so had much more sleep in winter, but now we have to get up according to the clock and our bodies don't like it.
The sunlight-vitamin D thing is sometimes evoked to explain why Scotland has the world's highest percentage of "gingers" with red hair and pallid skin who burn in the sun - it's the selective advantage of absorbing the maximum UV and hence making the most Vitamin D. Pale complexion and red hair - more vitamin D.
I heard Walter Bodmer, who is a very famous geneticist, telling some guy this on the TV the other night. Only slightly odd because although it is a nice theory, like a lot of these genetic advantage hypotheses there is little hard evidence for it, at least so far.
Oh I'm glad there's someone else who feels a little sad at the passing of the summer solstice ... I don't have SAD, but I hate the thought of the days getting shorter; even if the bulk of the summer is still to come, it's as though it's on the way out already.
If I could square it with my conscience, I'd probably split my life between the northern and summer hemispheres, so it would always be spring and summer...
"The sunlight-vitamin D thing is sometimes evoked to explain why Scotland has the world's highest percentage of "gingers" with red hair and pallid skin who burn in the sun - it's the selective advantage of absorbing the maximum UV and hence making the most Vitamin D. Pale complexion and red hair - more vitamin D."
Now someone needs to see if they can link that to multiple sclerosis. Orkney and Shetland have very high incidences of MS, and apparently it's linked to a)red hair and b) surnames beginning with Mac or Mc.
kirsten
The trouble with disease prevalence and closed communities is that they share more than their genetics - they also share "environment", including lifestyle, what sort of houses they live in, what sort of jobs they do, likely local set of minor viral ailments and so on, when they tend to get them , etc etc.
Because of this, teasing out the actual genetic component of susceptibility to (e.g.) MS is very difficult.
But Kirsten, Shetland doesn't have that many people with red hair and very few with names starting Mc or Mac!
Although we do have a lot of MS. No idea why - environment, inbreeding, lifestyle...?
MS increases in incidence with latitude, but no-one knows why! The prevalence figures are fascinating:
North East Scotland: 144/100 000
Northumberland: 50/100 000
North Italy: 20/100 000
Israel: 13/100 000
Mexico: 1.5/100 000
There must be some environmental factor - the risk of developing MS is proportional to the amount of time you've spent in a "high-risk" area.
Striking figures, MacMedic - not seen those before.
I thought one possible reason advanced for the MS figures being higher in northern latitudes was "likelihood of catching viral sniffles in the winter, esp in childhood and early adolescence" - the further north, runs the argument, the more likely you are to spend winters cooped up indoors with lots of other people with sniffles, and somehow, no doubt in genetically suspectible individuals, exposure to something or other helps trigger a process necessary for the illness to develop later.
The basis for some of this theory as I remember were studies that showed that if you moved from the UK (higher risk) to Australia (lower risk) before adolescence, your risk for MS in later life "became" the Australian risk. If you moved later than adolescence, you retained the lifetime risk of the UK.
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