Use of sun lights to improve mood in the winter in Anchorage (cities, population)

[Barkingowl]

Rance you forgot the Beluga whales in Turnagain Arm!
Turnagain Arm Alaska Drive | ALASKA.ORG Alaska Highway Drives

[kittymama]

I use light boxes here in Fairbanks. It doesn't help enough for me. I'm moving, but I have severe SAD. They do help some though - I can tell when I don't use them. Some people are really helped by them. Unfortunately, you cannot really know if it will affect you until you get here. If you have lived with winter before and not been affected, there's a good chance you'll do just fine here. However, if someone struggles with winter before moving to Alaska, I wouldn't recommend it because it is so extreme.

[olyal]

Kittymama, thank you very much. This is a great answer. We just going to have to go and find out. Are you moving out of Fairbanks only or out of Alaska all together? Good luck to you. I hope that you'll get to feel better once you move.

[kittymama]

Originally Posted by olyal

Kittymama, thank you very much. This is a great answer. We just going to have to go and find out. Are you moving out of Fairbanks only or out of Alaska all together? Good luck to you. I hope that you'll get to feel better once you move.

Out of Alaska altogether. Unfortunately the winters have gotten to me so much that I don't want to see anything like winter for years. I'm hopefully moving to central Texas. It's a shame - I liked winter when I lived in Boston and thought I could live here in Fairbanks. But I feel so tired and grumpy all winter long and it doesn't matter how much light therapy or tanning I do or how many vitamins I take. I still feel awful all the time. I miss living in the big city and the isolation gets to me too, but the main reason is the winter. Winter tends to make me notice the negative.

[Glitch]

Light therapy during the winter does have a positive effect, but it isn't a complete solution in itself. As Rance mentioned, your level of activity during the winter plays the key role in your mental health. Extra lights around the house, or spending 20 to 30 minutes in a light box, will help keep up your energy level during the dark winter days, but if you don't get out of the house and actually do something, then it really doesn't help stave off Cabin Fever. You should also establish a specific time at which to go to sleep, and try to stick to that time. A regular sleep schedule will also help keep you mentally active. In summary:

• Stay active, get out and do something;
• Spend 20 to 30 minutes twice a day in a very well lit room; and
• Maintain a regular sleep schedule.

If you do these three things each winter (especially staying active and getting outside regularly), you should not have any issues with SAD.

[olyal]

Kittymama, I wish you all the best. You shouldn’t feel ashamed. I think that you did right when you moved to Fairbanks. You thought it was the right thing to do at a time. Nothing is wrong with making a wrong choice, than learn, than move forward with your life. There is everything wrong with being constantly afraid of making a wrong choice and because of that never move forward. Being adventures and trying new things is what makes life truly wonderful even if it not always works out. This is what we are about to do now. I am trying to research all I can about Alaska and I am very excited, but in an end one never knows. I am really looking forward for everything to work out for us, but again maybe in a few years we’ll be your neighbors right there in TX running away from the same thing that you did! Well, it’s better than always wonder of how could it been if I only took a chance back then.

[olyal]

Glitch, those are great points. Thank you. I do wonder though, if the sunlight comes out in the first part of the day just for a few hours, but most people work at that time and kids are in school. By the time they get off it is dark. It sounds like it would work out on weekends to get out in that time of the day and spend few of those hours out. Unless, working and school hours in Alaska are different from other 48 states for that particular reason. Are they? Or how do you make it work if not?

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by olyal

Glitch, those are great points. Thank you. I do wonder though, if the sunlight comes out in the first part of the day just for a few hours, but most people work at that time and kids are in school. By the time they get off it is dark. It sounds like it would work out on weekends to get out in that time of the day and spend few of those hours out. Unless, working and school hours in Alaska are different from other 48 states for that particular reason. Are they? Or how do you make it work if not?

Alaska is an hour (or two) behind of the Pacific coast, but otherwise working hours and school hours are no different than the lower-48.

You don't have to get out while it is daylight, just getting out is what is important. Go see a movie or a concert. Take your dog for a walk. Take the kids sledding for a couple hours. Go snowmobiling, or skiing, or snowboarding. Take up snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. Go ice-fishing. Photograph winter scenes. There are thousands of various activities you can do that will get you out of the house, you just need to find one or two that peak your interest.

[kittymama]

It's dark when you go to work/school and dark when you get home. The daylight is in the middle of the day. If you can get out for lunch, it helps. Here in Fairbanks right now, the sun rises at about 10:30 am and goes down at 3:30 pm. We are gaining daylight though at about 45 minutes a week. At solstice, it's closer to rising at 11am and going down at 3pm. Anchorage is a little better in those regards - the sun is rising at about 10am and setting about 4:20 pm now.

I looked up your city in Russia on timeanddate.com. It looks like latitude-wise, it is slightly north of Boston at about 43.5 degrees (Boston is 42, Anchorage is 61 and Fairbanks is 65). I don't know what other reasons you are considering moving to Alaska, but I want to bring up Maine as a possibility to you. You can still live in a smaller town or community if that's what you want or a midsize city like Anchorage if you want a bigger place and you get to experience longer winters with snow. But Maine gets more hours of daylight than Anchorage in the winter. It is also not that bad to get to Boston from parts of Maine within a couple of hours if you need to travel internationally. One thing about living in Alaska is that it takes a lot longer to get to the rest of the world from here. You can add about half a day to most of your trips because you will have to fly to Seattle and change planes.

[olyal]

I see now what you saying Glitch. In a way I thought that day light is the important one to get out in everyday. Now it seems that Alaska is just like anywhere else. You can’t sit in the house all day long no matter where you are. My kids and I go to play to the local playground here in MO once or twice a day for an hour or two every day. Just depends what is going on of course. Although, there are days where we are not able to get out at all, but they are rear. So shouldn’t be any problem for us.