Many people suffer from mental exhaustion and mood swings in winter. Winter depression as a seasonal mental disorder has long been medically proven. A study now shows that the color of our eyes could affect our susceptibility to winter blues.
Researchers assume that early darkness and shorter days in winter throw our day-night rhythm out of balance. If we don’t get enough sunlight, our brain produces less of the happiness hormone serotonin and the sleep hormone melatonin. In winter, our bodies are constantly fighting against tiredness and a lack of happy substances, we are in constant stress, become psychologically imbalanced and sometimes develop seasonal depressions such as the winter blues or winter depression.
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What role does eye color play in winter depression?
The psychologist Prof. Lance Workman from the University of South Wales examined the connection between winter depression and the eye color of those affected for a study of seasonal affective disorders with 175 participants. The study participants were students from Wales and Cyprus. Surprisingly, he was able to prove that people with brown and very dark eyes are significantly more likely to suffer from winter blues and seasonal depression. People with blue eyes or generally lighter eye color suffer less often from winter depression.
What sounds unbelievable at first can be scientifically justified. The cells in the retina of our eyes not only send optical signals to the brain to produce images. Some retinal cells are solely responsible for transmitting information about perceived brightness from the eye to the brain. When it gets dark, these cells send the information “Caution, the brightness is decreasing” to the hypothalamus, in which the sleep hormone melatonin, among other things, is then produced. Just as light skin is more sensitive to the sun’s rays, light eyes are significantly more sensitive to light. Less pigmented eyes are therefore more sensitive to light than more heavily pigmented dark eyes.
In his study, Prof. Workman proves that because light-colored eyes are more sensitive to light, they absorb more light than dark eyes, even on typically dull and cloudy winter days. So melatonin production in winter is lower in people with light eyes than in dark-eyed people. The disruption of the day-night rhythm, which seems to be the cause of winter blues, is therefore not as serious in people with blue and light eyes. They experience less winter blues or seasonal depression.
Causes and symptoms of winter depression
Winter depression is a form of seasonal affective disorder. This is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder and is abbreviated by the acronym SAD. Unfortunately, the name says it all for those affected: sadness, a gloomy mood, a lack of energy and drive or irritability are typical of winter depression. In comparison to other depressive disorders, symptoms are also observed in winter depression that do not actually fit the clinical picture of depression. These are primarily weight gain due to food cravings and a stimulated appetite or the increase in total sleep time.
However, not everyone who feels physically and mentally exhausted, burned out or unhappy in winter suffers from a depressive disorder such as winter depression. Anyone who only discovers some of the symptoms themselves, or only occasionally and in a weak form, is likely experiencing the winter blues. This is a subcategory of seasonal affective disorder and is less severe. For those affected, the slight mood swings and imbalances are still stressful.
What Can You Do About Seasonal Depression?
Winter depression is closely related to the amount of daylight you get during the cold and darker months of the year. So try to increase your daylight consumption.
- Stay outdoors. Walk in the fresh air and take advantage of the few rays of light that the winter sun gives you.
- Your sleep-wake cycle is already disturbed in winter. Avoid the blue light on your smartphone that disturbs your sleep, especially in the evening before you fall asleep.
- Use light therapy with daylight lamps to lower your melatonin levels during the day.
