How much sunlight do you manage to get in winter?

According to a recent study carried out by the German research institute EMNID on a representative sample of 1,000 people, it would appear that over 63% of Germans get no more than two hours' sunlight per day over the winter months.

 

Over half of these people, in other words, by extension, one third of the population, go as far as saying that they spend most of their time cooped up inside or using some form of transport, which means that they get less than one hour of sunlight each day.

 

According to scientific studies, this lack of light could well be responsible for generating dark thoughts and triggering bouts of transient depression, not to mention making us feel tired and lethargic.

 

For certain individuals this kind of emotional unbalance is simply a passing phase, whilst for others it can end up developing into full-blown seasonal depression.

According to the survey, this type of depression primarily affects women as they get the least amount of sunlight. 70% of them claimed to spend less than two hours per day outdoors.

 

According to the specialists, the winter blues are caused by a lack of melatonin and serotonin, whose secretion is stimulated by daylight, since these two molecules play a part in regulating our nervous system.

 

Serotonin affects our central nervous system by acting as a neuromodulator, whilst melatonin, or the sleep hormone, regulates our body clock.

 

During the winter months, we spend most of our time in artificial light. The intensity of this light is relatively weak in comparison with sunlight, and consequently our bodies don't secrete enough serotonin and melatonin.

 

 

It's not always easy to get sufficient sunlight to ward off the winter blues, as work, activities, the weather and the cold all prevent us from spending long periods of time outdoors.

 

One of the solutions put forward by researchers, and notably by a study carried out by Pao Yen Lin and Quan Pin Yu in 2007, involves supplementing the body with EPA-type Omega-3 essential fatty acids.
These particular fatty acids have a beneficial effect on the emotional unbalance caused by a lack of light.

To ward off winter depression and restore our emotional balance, we are consequently advised to make sure our bodies get enough Omega-3s, notably as a preventive rather than curative measure.

As our bodies are unable to produce these Omega-3s on their own, we need to get them from external sources, such as fatty fish (mackerel, sardines, tuna or salmon).

 

These particular types of fish don't feature prominently enough in our diets, and the quantities that need to be consumed in order to provide the optimal dose of Omega-3s are relatively high. Consequently, a practical and worthwhile alternative would be to consume dietary supplements containing fish oil, which has a particularly high concentration of EPA-type Omega-3s.