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Time to sing the blues...
I'M writing this column on Blue Monday apparently. Not that I was aware it was.
I mean obviously I am feeling a little low since it is always hard returning to work after a break and I can't help dwelling on the fact that this time last week, I was walking along the sea front in Bridlington and tucking into a crab sandwich.
But yes, Monday, November 16, saw the launch of Blue Monday, which is going to run every Monday from now on during the winter months. And into the New Year.
It's all to do with SAD. Not being just merely sad or a little bit depressed about the gloomy, winter months, but sad as in SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder – a now recognised medical condition caused by a biochemical imbalance in the brain.
We humans are like pot plants, say scientists and leading experts. We need light to grow and flourish.
Keep us starved of it and there'll be repercussions, including sleep problems (we sleep more but still feel tired), over-eating (we crave for carbohydrates and therefore gain weight), depression, despair, misery and anxiety (normal tasks become frustratingly difficult) and even behavioural problems (especially in young people.)
Like me, you may well be nodding your head to all of the above.
Spookily enough I cannot sleep at all at the moment although I am unconvinced it is due to the possibility of suffering from SAD.
I don't believe my insomnia is due to chemical brain imbalance, but think it is more likely that it is His Lordship's snoring.
To be perfectly honest, it is like sharing a bed with a Gloucester Old Spot. Night after night, I find myself fantasising about putting a pillow over his head.
So that's not so much SAD as really, really MAD.
Light specialists Lumie, however, have launched an online clinic to help us banish the blues of the winter blackout.
Now I must say I am in two minds about whether or not the lack of light has an effect on our wellbeing.
Surely, you'd have to admit, there's nothing nicer than being indoors by the side of a roaring fire, a glass of something warming in one hand and an old Agatha Christie thriller on the box, while the black of night engulfs the streets and the wind whistles around the chimney?
If the rain is lashing against the windows and you can't face the prospect of braving the weather, there's always the antidote of a large slab of home-made cake or the odd chocolate digestive or six. (Maybe they're right about carb-cravings.)
Granted, it's pretty grim getting up in the dark but if we didn't have winter gloom, the prospect of spring with its sunny mornings and birdsong would not seem half so exciting.
What would there be to look forward to?
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Weather for Halifax
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Light snow
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
