Are You Ready For The Winter Blues

The winter blues is a feeling experienced by many people. In late fall, as the light starts to lessen, people feel more lethargic and get depressed. For some – as many as ten million people in America alone – the winter blues goes a step beyond into a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder. With the Covid outbreak stressing our lives, SAD and even just plain winter blues is more of a concern for many people. What can you do about it? You can start with some old fashioned lighting.

Brighten Up Your Home

The main factor in winter blues is tied to light. Light helps regulate our biological functions, as well as helps ups produce and absorb certain hormones, as well as Vitamin D. It plays such an important role that when we get less sunlight, the changes in our hormones is so dramatic that it actively causes depression. At least, that’s what scientists think. It’s backed up by a lot of evidence, including the fact that the further you go from the equator, the more common SAD becomes. Also evidence: light therapy is an effective treatment for the disorder.

Landscape Lighting To Make Things Brighter

Last time, we talked about how landscape lighting improves the value of your home. All that’s still true, but now consider this: if brightening up your home can help you ward off the winter blues, landscape lighting might be just the thing. Some extra lighting around the yard can trick your brain into thinking that the daylight hours are lasting just a little bit longer and keep them producing the proper chemicals your body needs to keep you feeling lively. Our LED lights give off really bright light.

Not to oversell this, of course. On it’s own, this won’t be effective for genuine SAD, but if it’s just feeling down from lack of sunlight, it can be pretty helpful. It brightens up your yard, draws attention to your yard’s best features and will get you thinking about the positives more than the negatives. It’s a little bit of a boost that can go a long way.

What Else Can I Do?

You know what else has been proven to help with winter blues? Going outside. The fresh air gives you better oxygen, helping clear your head. Being outside gives you exercise, which gets your body in the mood to produce its natural hormones. It helps you get more natural sunlight.

Plus, the fresh air is healthier, even when it’s cold.  Cold is actually bad for most bacteria and viruses – it doesn’t kill them, but it does cause them to go dormant and be less likely to spread. Meanwhile, being in the open air means you’re breathing less of what others are coughing out. If you’re worried about the virus, exercising outside can help.  Just make sure you bundle up.

Additionally, exercising under bright lights is shown to help a lot. With our bright, LED lights set up around your yard, you can turn them on and enjoy your exercise while also getting that extra bright light to aid your mood.

Anything Else?

Oh, plenty. Real Simple has a good article on things you can do that have been shown to improve your mood. Check them out if you want to see other ideas.

Get Your Landscape Lighting Set Up Today

Winter’s already underway now. Some of us might already be feeling the effects of the winter blues. If you want to avoid it this year, now’s the time to take a few steps to brighten up your home. If you want some landscape lighting to do just that, while also improving the value of your home and making it look better to everyone, we’re ready to help you out. Get in touch with us today to schedule an appointment. We’re ready to answer any questions you have.