It’s hard for us to work, everything falls out of hand. As if in revenge on someone, we begin to immoderately absorb food – and all carbohydrates, carbohydrates. In short, we get sleepy, boring and fat. We begin to envy the bears, who can afford the luxury of getting into their den for the whole winter.
This blues doctors call seasonal affective (emotional) disorder. It is accompanied by many signs of depression, begins in the fall and lasts until spring.
What is the reason for the “hibernation”, scientists are not yet fully clear. They believe, however, that in this way the brain responds to the lack of sunlight: the synthesis of serotonin, the substance responsible for our activity, vigor and vitality, decreases. But we need to go to work, school and college, and then go shopping and for aunt’s birthday …
The northern regions suffer the most from seasonal affective disorder, where the polar night is eight months of the year. And residents of megalopolises. Not only do they spend most of their lives indoors, but even in the “fresh air” they do not receive the sun, since the sky is covered with a cloudy veil of smog. Note that women are much more susceptible to hibernation than men.
How to prevent this hopeless winter melancholy? You can change the situation radically by moving somewhere to the islands of eternal summer. You can spend a week in the Caribbean or the Bahamas in the saddest time. For those who do not want to do this, we advise the following.
• Make it light around you. In the morning, turn on general lighting fixtures, not just table lamps. Let them shine. Saving electricity is, of course, an important issue, but … But then decide for yourself which of the evils is the least for you.
• Alternatively, get a timer lamp that will turn it on two hours before you wake up in the morning. Experts believe that artificial dawn, even if you continue to sleep, can help fight the symptoms of hibernation.
• Don’t forget about adaptogens. Not being a cure for any particular disease, they will support the body in the dark, as they have the ability to increase performance, tone, reduce lethargy, drowsiness and drive away colds. These are preparations of ginseng (it is especially effective in winter!), Tincture of schisandra chinensis, Manchurian aralia, zamanihi, Rhodiola rosea or Eleutherococcus. They are taken drop by drop over a period of two to three weeks.
• You can take baths with bergamot oil, which has the ability to increase our sensitivity to sunlight. A few drops of bergamot added to the bath will make up for the lack of natural light and help absorb those rare sunlight that breaks through the gray clouds.
“As a rule, we always try to limit ourselves to flour. This is right. However, in winter, you should not completely remove buns and pasta from the diet: they provide the energy that we need during cold weather. In addition, with their help, we treat ourselves from hibernation: carbohydrates increase the concentration in the brain of that to the serotonin we need.
There are two more recipes that you might call commonplace. Name. True, this will not make them less effective.
• We must move! Choose the mode of movement that you like best: skiing, skating, walking or in the pool.
• It is necessary to take vitamins! They are real support in the fight against hibernation. 60-100 mg of vitamin C per day will not only invigorate, but also strengthen the immune system. If fatigue and colds just torture you, you can increase the dose to 500 mg.
There are other remedies for seasonal affective disorder. These are antidepressants, but we will not dare to recommend them without the permission of the doctor.