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Winter blues

Relieve your winter depression

Due to the decrease in the number of hours of sunshine and the amount of sunlight in winter, our bodies respond by producing the hormone melatonin. This affects your biological clock, your sleep and sometimes your mood. It is not without reason that we talk about the winter blues. Sunlight can alleviate these winter blues.

People who suffer from winter blues notice that they become more gloomy as the days get shorter. If you suffer from prolonged winter blues, it seems as if your body is less able to adapt to the decreasing amount of light. This can disrupt your day and night rhythm, worsen your sleep and negatively affect your mood.
The good news is that as the days get longer, the symptoms diminish. The less pleasant news is that for many people who suffer from depression in winter, it gets worse every year. It is therefore advisable to take these symptoms seriously.

Reasons for winter blues

It is not entirely clear what causes winter depression, but it is probably a combination of:

Insufficient vitamin D production due to too little daylight
Sleep deprivation due to a disrupted biological clock
Excess production of the sleep hormone melatonin
Reduced production of serotonin, a substance in your brain that affects your mood

Light treatment

You can treat winter depression with light. There is not yet much evidence supporting this treatment, but many users of Sunshower® say that they benefit from extra light in the winter. In particular, the use of the UV function can provide a greater feeling of vitality and more energy. UV light, especially UVB light, is vital to the production of vitamin D in the skin. In recent years, more and more research has been conducted into the influence of vitamin D on the immune system. The reason for all these studies is that influenza hardly occurs in the summer; the period when we are outside more often and our skin can produce more vitamin D. This vitamin plays a central role in regulating the immune system and may also help to relieve or prevent winter depression.