For many people during the winter season, along with the emergence of snow, hot chocolate, and holidays, also comes the dreaded seasonal depression. With its proper name being seasonal affective disorder (SAD), seasonal depression refers to the often unexplainable feelings of sadness and unproductivity that people feel when a specific season begins. In the case of this disorder, most attribute it to the lack of daylight, the spread of illness, and the piercingly cold weather that winter entails.
However, seasonal affective disorder occurs for reasons beyond a dislike of cold temperatures as scientists claim that seasonal affective disorder is a scientific phenomenon, with a combination of biological mechanisms collaborating to make people absolutely miserable during the winter.
Circadian rhythms play a pivotal role in driving seasonal affective disorder. Circadian rhythms have been deemed by doctors to be “biological clocks,” given that they regulate every single process that occurs in the body. The biological clock communicates to the endocrine system when and where to produce the hormones necessary to keep bodily systems functioning. It is difficult to truly capture the immense importance of maintaining healthy circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms have the frightening ability to manipulate your appetite, sleep, body temperature, and energy, entailing that your health is contingent on their stability. Every person has their own unique circadian rhythm, as each circadian rhythm is dependent upon the individual environmental stimuli that one encounters every day.
Similarly to many disorders, seasonal affective disorder is a result of disruptions in your circadian rhythms which leads to a plethora of hormonal imbalances. During the wintertime, serotonin levels decline while melatonin levels rise. This combination is an unpleasant one, given that serotonin dictates your mood and melatonin your sleep. Serotonin is the hormone associated with happiness, regulating your mood neurologically. Melatonin manages your sleep cycles, increasing during the periods you generally go to bed. Thus, it’s not difficult to imagine why disparities in these hormones make one feel depressed, as they incline feelings of not only sadness but exhaustion.
It’s been established that seasonal affective disorder stems from hormonal imbalances, but it’s critical to understand why these disparities occur in the first place. The truth is, it boils down to a shortage of sunlight. Indeed, as unfeasible as it may appear, a few hours less of sunlight can send one spiraling into a deep depressive state. The process begins with our eyes. Our retinas, which receive light, have specialized cells known as ganglion cells, commonly referred to as RGCs, that detect sunlight and send signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus in order to circulate hormones that are related to light. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, simply put, is an instrumental region of the brain, being the driving force behind the coordination of circadian rhythms.
After taking into account the amount of light our retinas detect, the suprachiasmatic nucleus calculates the necessary hormone production levels. When our retinas receive less light, the body perceives this as a decrease in demand for serotonin and an increase in demand for melatonin.
Although this concept seems arbitrary, in actuality, there’s a very clear path of logic behind it. People’s energy levels naturally plateau at night as it is the perceived time of sleep. Thus, when it’s dark outside or in your room, this suggests to the brain that it is to begin circulating melatonin throughout the body. Serotonin and melatonin are closely correlated in production trends, with serotonin being the precursor to melatonin. As light decreases, the body converts surplus serotonin into melatonin to spark the sleep cycle. Therefore, from your body’s perspective, when you are exposed to deficient levels of sunlight, it should produce greater quantities of melatonin, which consequently depletes its serotonin supply.
Seasonal affective disorder can have a diverse range of symptoms, hindering each individual it affects differently, but there are overarching symptoms that the majority of those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder experience. The primary result of seasonal affective disorder is a steep decline in productivity and energy, which leads to an array of other side effects. When undergoing hormonal turmoil, people often find it difficult to concentrate and focus, even on the most critical aspects of their lives, such as their work and their social life. Feelings of guilt, anxiety, and irritability can additionally arise when being subjected to seasonal affective disorder, diminishing one’s social, academic, and professional performance. All of these potent emotions happening simultaneously propel one right into a period of sadness, isolation, and hopelessness.
Despite being classified as a mental disorder, seasonal affective disorder can concurrently take a massive toll on one’s physical health. It can lead to increased appetite, particularly for sweets and carbohydrates, in turn leading to fluctuations in one’s weight as the abrupt spikes and drops in certain hormones can lead to neurological conflicts, notably headaches and incoherent thinking.
Ultimately, seasonal affective disorder can deplete people’s physical and mental health, putting them into a position in which it becomes difficult to keep up with life’s perpetual responsibilities. Thus, the question becomes how people should combat seasonal affective disorder to ensure it doesn’t take over their livelihood.
There are two main approaches to treatment. First, patients can choose to seek medical treatments, which are administered by psychiatrists. However, for less severe cases, patients can alternatively opt for non-medical means of treatment.
Medical treatments aim to tackle the disorder from a biological perspective, targeting light deficiencies. The body’s vitamin D supply is fulfilled mainly through the sun, thus when there is less sunlight, supplies can quickly be exhausted. To combat this, psychiatrists prescribe vitamin D pills in order to help the body adjust to the rapid shift in sunlight exposure. For more severe cases of seasonal affective disorder, psychiatrists will recommend light therapy. Light therapy is a rigorous treatment that demands everyday application, requiring the patient to spend 45 minutes in an enclosed room equipped with bright UV lights to absorb vitamin D.
Although effective, medical treatments can be highly expensive and inaccessible. Fortunately, simpler methods of treatment can make just as significant of an improvement in your mental health.
Winter seasonal affective disorder often hits student communities hardest. To confirm this, I conducted a survey that found that 67% of Bronx Science students classify winter as the most academically and mentally taxing season of the year. With winter also being the season of midterms and numerous exams, it is evident that students are no strangers to the challenges of flourishing during the winter. As a result, students have been forced to develop an arsenal of strategies to remain productive and motivated throughout the season, in spite of health struggles. After surveying Bronx Science students about the best tactics to maintain a healthy and driven mindset, there was one tactic that appeared to be a common thread among the student community.
That common thread was embracing a balanced lifestyle. Inherently, when one is constantly focusing on a singular aspect of life, stress levels will be overwhelming. Articulating all of your energy toward school and work will ultimately eliminate your will to be productive, leaving you without an outlet to relieve anxiety and stress. “An academic-oriented lifestyle, although it seems ideal, can often backfire on students and drain them of their motivation to complete school work,” said Sophia Birman ’26. Even if you have seemingly endless duties with a shortage of time, it is imperative to set aside a moment to prioritize your mental health. “I make sure to give myself time to socialize and time for self-care, because I would not be able to function if I never had time for myself,” said Renner Ashley ’26. Grant yourself that second to relax and decompress, as seemingly insignificant as it may appear. Do not underestimate the power of a single moment.
“An academic-oriented lifestyle, although it seems ideal, can often backfire on students and drain them of their motivation to complete school work,” said Sophia Birman ’26.