How Moods Are Affected By The Sun :: essays research papers

How Moods argon Affected By The SunThesis The amount of fair weather pot receive affects their mood.A young woman lies asleep on a cold, overcast winter morning. At 4 A.M., afaint glistering radiates from a rest bulb placed near her bed. The lightstep by step gains intensity and covers until 6 A.M., when the woman awakes. Shehad just experienced a off-key dawn of a new day. After being treated withthis for some(prenominal) days, the womans annual winter depressive disorder slowly goes away.Does this mean that the less sun you get the worse you feel, or perhaps themore you get the give way your mood? It is very possible that you whitethorn feel thisway as millions of people worldwide have experienced it first-hand. Thisphenomena is still sort of a mystery as many researchers dont completelyunderstand why this happens. "It may be that certain individuals have inheritedvulnerability that causes them to develop depression in the absence of exposureto sufficient environmental light"1. Frederick A. Cook, the gum elastic explorer,provided a vivid description of the effects of prolonged darkness on the humanpsyche "The curtain of blackness which has overfallen the outer world has as welldescended upon the inner world of our souls," Cook wrote in his journal on may16, 1898, "Around our tables . . . . men are sitting about sad and cast downlost in dreams of melancholy. For brief moments some try to break the spot byjokes, told perhaps for the 50th time. Others grind out a contented philosophybut all efforts to infuse ardent hopes fail."2 several(prenominal) believe that light affectsthe bodys ability to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps inducefeelings of cool off and well being. The eyes sensitivity may also play a secernate insun/mood relations. A debate was done to a group of people in the winter andsummer. In the winter the many individuals experienced much more difficultyseeing dim light after sitting in the dar k for a while.3 Another study done inVancouver shows that electrical activity in the retinas when a bright light isshone, is significantly less in winter4.As much as 5% of Americans suffer from Seasonal Affective disorder, also knownas SAD5. SAD is an illness in which the sufferers feel depressed, feellethargic, and they overeat . on that point is no known cause for this widespreadillness. Many researchers of SAD are speculating on the idea that SAD patientsmight have seasonal variations in their melatonin secretions. A study ofmelatonin patterns in SAD sufferers was done to determine if melatonin was a