Mind and Body

Cont. directly from Part 1

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SAD is believed to be caused by a lack of sunlight, firstly because it is possible that a lack of sunlight in the winter causes the body’s circadian rhythm to be broken or disturbed. The circadian rhythm is responsible for letting the body know when it should be asleep and when it should be awake – its disruption may cause depression.

A lack of sunlight may also be associated with SAD because sunlight helps to manufacture serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood. Lack of sunlight often causes a lack of serotonin, and this may cause one’s mood to destabilize. The same is true for the hormone melatonin, associated with both depression and sleep. Long winter nights may cause the body to produce less melatonin, leading to sleeping problems and depression.

One reason sunlight is believed to be related to SAD is that people living further north, or further from the equator, are more likely to have SAD and are less likely to have much exposure to the sun.

While all of this is factual information, I am going to discuss another association with SAD and a lack of sunlight that is based purely in my observation and opinion.

A new branch of psychology, called ‘color psychology,’ has recently gained a lot of attention from the public. Many people are now basing the way they decorate their houses in this branch of psychology, because colors are believed to have some effect on people’s mood. Color, being something as inescapable as perception, is something that is apt to have an affect on our brains, because we have known it throughout the course of our evolution.

Sunlight is associated with color. In sunlight or bright light, color is much more vivid. In the spring and summer, there are wider varieties of color, and are closely associated with vibrant, bright, warm colors – red, yellow, orange, and other stimulating colors which are associated with arousal and stimulation, while cool colors such as blue and green are tranquilizing. Blue is associated with depression, as well. In the winter, there are much cooler colors; grey, black, brown, blue, white – all of which are stoic, tranquilizing, and may negatively affect mood.
I believe it is possible that color psychology may be associated with SAD and a lack of sunlight that people are not getting.

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Will be continued tomorrow with Pt. 3.

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