BRITTANY LUSE, HOST:
OK. So it is – I don’t know – 7-something in the morning. I am sitting at my kitchen table. I have a HappyLight, is what it’s called. It’s maybe the size of, like, a laptop screen, maybe a little smaller. It has, like, a gentle but strong glow on my face. And then I have, like, next to that a regular spiral notebook from, like, the dollar store with, like, a pencil that I probably have from, like, three jobs ago that I’m using to journal. And the timer on my light tells me I have, like, five minutes left. And then I’ve got a nice cup of black tea with cinnamon and clove – feels very wintry. Yeah. And so I’m just doing my thing. This is what I’m doing every single morning, no matter what, because it keeps me from acting a fool.
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LUSE: I will be the first to admit it. I am not my best in the winter months. It feels like every day is a fight – a fight against the cold weather, a fight between my wallet and the demands of the holiday season, a fight with the snow and, of course, a fight against the shortened daylight hours. But this winter, I changed my game up, and it’s turned the wig around on my winter. I am a new woman, and it’s all thanks to a new morning routine I started two months ago.
OK. Now I’m outside. I am taking just a shorter walk today because I’m going into the office and I have to do some stuff at home before I do that. So I’m, like, making moves. We’re moving quickly today. I got to go. It’s 32. It says it feels like 24, but I don’t think that’s true. I think it feels like 40. This is how I feel, though, about my morning routine. It’s, like, even if I wake up, I don’t feel like doing it, I just be like, Brittany, trust the process. And I trusted it, and here we are.
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LUSE: I call this my SAD morning routine, as in my S-A-D morning routine. It took me almost 30 years to realize I was one of an estimated 10 to 20 million people in the United States with symptoms of SAD, or seasonal affective disorder.
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NORMAN E ROSENTHAL: Seasonal affective disorder is a condition that occurs usually every year as the days get short and dark, and people have a very predictable set of symptoms.
LUSE: That’s Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal. He’s a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School.
ROSENTHAL: Usually, they overeat, especially sweets and starches. They gain weight. They withdraw from friends and family. They feel down and bad. So this happens regularly year after year, and when the days get longer again on the other side of winter, they begin to feel better. That’s the typical picture.
LUSE: Dr. Rosenthal is well-versed in SAD because he’s the person who researched and formally identified the condition in the ’80s. He also helped pioneer the use of light therapy, like the kind I use at home, to treat symptoms.
ROSENTHAL: ‘Cause this was a condition, illness, hiding in plain sight. Everybody thought, well, everybody feels lousy in the winter. And they didn’t make the connection between a set of symptoms that they had and the connection with the light and the possibility of helping themselves with light. So it all evolved slowly. We did the research, we described the syndrome, and I called it seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. I thought it was a nice acronym, S-A-D…
LUSE: Yeah.
ROSENTHAL: …SAD.
LUSE: Yeah (laughter).
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LUSE: It’s taken me years to settle into a routine that works for me, but I think I finally got it. From sitting in front of my light box to moving my body in the morning, each step is especially geared to fight my yearly case of the winter blues, my seasonal slump. I know what’s working, but I’m not too clear on why it’s working. So I called up the OG of seasonal affective disorder himself to get his read on my routine and hopefully find some new ways to think about the winter months while I keep it pushing.
I decided to have a smoothie today for my nutritious breakfast because I’m kind of in a hurry. It’s a good way for me to get fiber, protein and not too much cleanup and, like, something I can kind of sip on while I’m doing other stuff, getting ready this morning. So here we go.
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LUSE: Hello, hello. I’m Brittany Luse, and you’re listening to IT’S BEEN A MINUTE from NPR, a show about what’s going on in culture and why it doesn’t happen by accident.
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LUSE: So something I wanted to run by you, Dr. Rosenthal – I have suffered from SAD, like, most of my adult life. So over the years, I have worked to develop something kind of like a tool kit that I’ve been using to get through SAD. It’s a very specific morning routine that is tailored to helping me fight the symptoms that I usually feel this time of year.
So the first thing I’m going to talk to you about is the light box, which I know you know a lot about. Mine is a small lamp with a bright light that sits on my kitchen table, and it mimics actual sunlight while I sit in front of it. And I journal in front of my little lamp, my little SAD lamp, every morning for about 20 to 30 minutes over some freshly brewed tea, and it has helped me so much. This year, I mean, I started it literally the Monday after daylight savings time. But I know you pioneered the use of light therapy for seasonal affective disorder. But I’m wondering if you can break down for me and break down for our listeners why it works.
ROSENTHAL: So it’s very simple, and laypeople can understand it very easily because the light comes in through the eye and it stimulates the neurons at the back of the eye, the retinal neurons, and that sends messages to certain parts of the brain, and they register, wow, it’s summertime. Cheer up. And that is how it works. I mean, that’s very simplistic, but that’s the bottom line.
LUSE: So it’s like the light hits the eye and kind of makes you think that it’s summer.
ROSENTHAL: Hits the retina and it triggers the release of chemicals that improve mood, energy and all the things you’re lacking.
LUSE: I’m traveling soon to go visit my family, and I will be bringing my lamp with me because I don’t want to miss a morning. I don’t want to miss a morning. Another part of my morning routine, at least during the winter, to kind of defeat SAD, as you say, is getting some physical activity, whether it is cycling on my stationary bike in my bedroom or taking a walk for – I don’t know – 20 minutes to an hour. A lot of times when I go on my walk, I talk to one of my best friends who gets up early (laughter) and we chat. But it feels like a mental and physical reset that kind of allows me to start the day with clarity. Like, I don’t know. The way I described it to our producer Corey Antonio is, like, I feel like if I wake up with cobwebs, like, physically moving my body kind of shakes them, kind of shakes them out. At least that’s how it feels to me. I’m curious about if there’s, like, a recommended type of physical activity that helps fight the winter blues.
ROSENTHAL: Well, your morning routine is not a lot different from mine. When I get up, one of the first things I do is to sit in front of my lights. And it’s – you can do whatever you want. I check my emails or I – maybe I make my notes, write down some jottings about things I want to write about and do that for, like, 20 minutes, and then I meditate every morning. That’s another thing I do. And then I’m out and walking. I walk my little dog and I’m walking outside and I’m feeling no pain. It’s very pleasant.
LUSE: (Laughter) I have to agree, it is very pleasant. Yeah. I often get up in the morning and walk before work. I – as long as it’s not raining or super icy outside – because it can get very cold – I will try to bundle up and get out, but just because it’s, like, a good way for me to keep up with a friend. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or audiobook or music. But I find that also for me, even if I know I’m not going to be very social on a given day that I go out for a walk, I know I’m going to run into neighbors and see the usual crossing guards and have these kind of, like – I don’t know – low-stakes, light interactions that I find really help me to feel better. My parents live in the suburbs, where I’m also from. Whenever I go home to visit them, and I still get up and do my walk, it’s very different (laughter) because nobody is outside. And so I still enjoy the sunlight, but the social aspect of (laughter) seeing people on my walk has kind of gone.
ROSENTHAL: Well, I think you’re doing all the right things, you know – connection, community, light, exercise – walking, just the moving of your muscles, even when it’s bracing and cold. I agree, if it’s very dark or rainy…
LUSE: Yeah.
ROSENTHAL: …Not so great. But I rarely skip a morning walk.
LUSE: Wow. Oh, my gosh. I’m, like, so glad that my morning routine is really stacking up. I’m going to send this to my therapist (laughter) and be like, see, I told you, girl – following directions.
ROSENTHAL: Tell your therapist I approve.
LUSE: (Laughter) A-plus, A-plus. Well, after I take my walk and I do my journaling, I have my tea, I also make time to make sure that I eat a balanced breakfast – you know, protein, some fiber and something fresh on my plate. Now, I don’t get very, like, intense about it. It’s kind of like whatever is around. If it’s leftovers, then I’m eating leftovers from what I had from dinner the night before. If it is some boiled eggs and some fruit and, like, some peanut butter with toast, then I’ll have that. If I’m short on time, then I will have, you know, a smoothie or a yogurt bowl or something. I feel like especially as I get a little older, that as I’m approaching middle age, if I don’t have enough to eat in the morning, then I’m feeling kind of, like, (laughter) lightheaded and confused. How does, like, food play a role in how people can help mitigate the symptoms of SAD?
ROSENTHAL: It’s so important, and it’s just as you say. I will always load towards the protein. So I’ll have a egg beater omelet or a cucumber and some cheese. If I want a little bit of carbs, I love a handful or two of sunflower seeds, not – or pumpkin seeds, pepitas. I like those. Right, I’ll give you a little tip. Let’s say, whatever it is that you had for dinner the night before, if you really like it and it’s well-balanced, make a little extra so that you can have it for breakfast the next morning.
LUSE: Listen; I’m a big fan. I’m a big fan of leftovers for breakfast. I was actually just saying to some of our colleagues at lunch today how I love a good old breakfast soup. I like a good miso soup or a lentil soup for breakfast. I don’t have a microwave. My apartment didn’t come with one. But soup is something you can just put it in the pot, and in a few minutes, I have something warm and comforting to eat that feels a lot better than something cold (laughter), especially on days like this.
ROSENTHAL: Well, you know what I’m picking up from you is that you’re very mindful of things that you do that can change the way you feel. And I think this is one thing that I try and teach my patients, and that is, you know, do things that are healthy and that make you feel good and that connect you with other people. Love the fact that you’re greeting the crossing guard and the various people in the morning. With me and the dog, I’m going to be greeting other people with their dogs, and the dogs will greet each other, and it’s kind of a sense of community.
LUSE: Oh, that’s so nice. That’s nice. Maybe one day I’ll add a dog to my morning routine. We’ll see. We’ll see.
ROSENTHAL: (Laughter).
LUSE: Now, I will say there is something else that’s not part of my morning routine. Now, it used to be, Dr. Rosenthal. It used to be part of my morning routine. But now, something that I make sure that I do not do is look at social media. You could be the most famous pop star in the world and you could drop an album overnight, or a celebrity could announce, you know, their divorce. First thing in the morning, basically, if no one texts me about it or calls me multiple times about it, I will have no clue. Like, I wake up in the morning. I used to love to open social media and scroll it and look in the bed and spiral out and feel like not wanting to get up, but I noticed how much better I felt when I didn’t look at social media. And not just so much – for me it wasn’t so much about, like, just not looking at my phone. It was like, I realized I had to replace it with other activities (laughter). And that made a really big difference for me. When you discovered SAD, though, like, we didn’t have this culture of immediacy around tapping in online, basically, as soon as you wake up. How has social media changed the conversation around seasonal affective disorder?
ROSENTHAL: Well, I think that the benefits you get from direct connection with people you know, where there’s, like, a real genuine connection when you talk with somebody, is, you know, much superior to one’s mood than a thousand strangers, you know? And so I will, you know, get on the phone and, while I’m walking, I will possibly talk with my sister or my son or somebody who I really want to hear about and want to hear how they’re doing and so on and so forth. So I’ll use the phone, but it’s really to connect with real people that I have a real relationship with that enhances the way I feel about myself and my place in the world, as opposed to however many people there are out there whom I don’t really know. I mean, I think these are probably wonderful people, but there’s just not enough hours in the day, if you know what…
LUSE: Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I mean, you’re talking about prioritizing the real bonds that you have with real people who are in your life, as opposed to these kind of parasocial bonds that can be fun for entertainment but maybe not the first thing that you should be thinking about as soon as you get up in the morning.
ROSENTHAL: I will say in defense of social media that it has been a vehicle for spreading the word, for example, even about SAD. There have been SAD groups on social media, on Facebook, where they exchange tips with one another about how to do the lights or what works or what doesn’t work and support one another as they’re having a hard time getting out of bed or whatever the case may be. So I do want to say that it has a really significant upside if you use it properly.
LUSE: Oh, I love that. I love that. I mean, now that I think about it, in so many ways, I feel like I spend a lot of winter just kind of fighting the season. You know, I don’t want to be cold. I don’t want to slow down. I don’t want it to be so dark. We’ve discussed the ways in which winter causes some of us to feel not so great. What are some ways that we can embrace winter and its unique gifts?
ROSENTHAL: That’s such a wonderful question because, you know, I think that’s partly what the holidays do. You know, there’s family. There’s get-togethers. There’s special events. There’s community, the exchanging of gifts, the colors of the ornaments on the Christmas tree or the Hanukkah menorah. All these things are ways of saying, we want to embrace the season. We don’t want to just let it go and be a miserable season. We want to make it something special. Some people get away. Some people go into the winter, like my son and his family are going skiing.
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ROSENTHAL: They’re entering into the winter, you know? So I think we do whatever is going to make us joyful, whatever is going to work for us because everybody is different. But beware of getting under the covers, putting the quilt over your head so that you don’t get the light. Isolating, cocooning – try not to do that because generally that isn’t associated with upbeat mood. So when I open the curtains and if there’s light, even if it’s a winter day and the light is coming off the snow, I feel, wow, you know, here is the light. It’s another day. It’s something to celebrate. Every day is like a little celebration that we’re still alive, that we can still enjoy the light, you know?
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LUSE: Dr. Rosenthal, thank you so much. It’s an honor to speak with you. And, yeah, thanks for bringing SAD into my life (laughter). It’s given me something to be able to work from in terms of caring for myself, and I don’t think I’m alone in that, so thank you.
ROSENTHAL: Well, you’ve cheered me up because you obviously do a lot to make yourself feel better, and that makes me feel better.
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LUSE: That was Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School and author of “Defeating Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Guide To Health And Happiness Through All Seasons” (ph).
So you all know I love hearing from you. And over the past few weeks, some of you have left the sweetest notes for me in the comments and reviews. One of y’all wrote, this is my favorite podcast produced by NPR. Me, too. Another wrote, thanks for enriching my life. You guys, I’m blushing. And if any of those comments resonate with you, I would love, love, love it if you rated and reviewed this show wherever you’re listening. It helps other people find the show, and that means this community we’re building will get even bigger. So join the team. Rate and review this show right now. And thank you.
This episode of IT’S BEEN A MINUTE was produced by…
COREY ANTONIO ROSE, BYLINE: Corey Antonio Rose.
LUSE: This episode was edited by…
AARON EDWARDS, BYLINE: Aaron Edwards.
NEENA PATHAK, BYLINE: Neena Pathak.
LUSE: Our supervising producer is…
BARTON GIRDWOOD, BYLINE: Barton Girdwood.
LUSE: Our executive producer is…
VERALYN WILLIAMS, BYLINE: Veralyn Williams.
LUSE: Our VP of programming is…
YOLANDA SANGWENI, BYLINE: Yolanda Sangweni.
LUSE: All right, that’s all for this episode of IT’S BEEN A MINUTE from NPR. I’m Brittany Luse. Talk soon.
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