Says a commenter on "Seasonal Affective Disorder Isn’t Just for Winter/Feeling blue even though everyone seems to be basking in perfect summer weather? There might be a good reason for that" (NYT).
That was originally published a year ago, but it's on the NYT home page today, presumably because it's great Memorial Day weekend topic: Some of us don't love summer. If you suffer in winter, you have lots of vocal company. And if you enjoy winter, other people are always interfering with the pleasure by openly complaining about it. But there's an excessive celebration of the greatness of summer. If you feel bad in the summer, you might feel harassed by the pressure to join in all this purported fun.
Here's another comment from over there:
For years I told everyone I suffer from summer affective disorder. They looked at me like I was crazy. I hate summer. The noise level is horrible especially buzz saws, mowers, weed hackers, motorcycles, insects, etc. The frenzied energy is intolerable. I am a shut in in the summer with all the blinds closed against the heat and humidity as I get sick when I am outside. Winter is quiet and soft and most of all I feel more secure under the many blankets and in my flannel PJs. I can be outside where so few people venture. I love to bake and make soup which is perfect on a frigid cold day and love to watch it snow. And the coup de grace is that I don’t have to wear a bra!
Coup de grace is not the right phrase, but I know what she's trying to say. Thick layers of clothing take the spectacle out of bralessness.
The article offers a few ideas about what might cause Summer SAD, but it misses the most obvious one, which this commenter nails:
I definitely have Summer SAD. Heat and humidity do play a role but, I think, the long days play the most blame. I don't sleep well when it's light out and it's rough on me when daylight starts at 4:30a and it doesn't get truly dark until almost 9p. Months of poor sleep along with heat and humidity really takes a toll.
Here's a way to test this theory. Is there more Summer SAD in the South or in the North. In the South, there's worse heat, but in the North, there are more extremes of light and dark. I've been living in Wisconsin since 1984, but I've only recently let go of the idea that an adult can't go to bed when it's still light out, which it often is until 10. When I first moved here, I actually thought your couldn't expect kids to go to bed until it's at least starting to get dark. In June, it starts getting light before 5 a.m., so that means there are barely 7 hours of darkness. Seven hours is a good night's sleep, but it's not easy to aim your sleeping in such a precise zone of time every night.
So where is there more Summer SAD, the North or the South? I'll bet it's the North, and the problem is letting the light deprive you of sleep.
Anyway, I recommend observing your own feelings in relation to the light and the temperature and moisture. Some of the SADness might be just that your feelings don't match those of the majority — or the vocal minority that's so biased in favor of summer. Enjoy your difference, whatever it is. You can close the curtains and sit inside and read. And I strongly recommend getting out at dawn in the summer. It's as cool as it's going to be all day, and you don't have that glaring light in your eyes and on your skin.
Speaking of the "horrible" excessive noise of summer, if you can sleep with the windows open, the birds will wake you up in plenty of time to get dressed and out the door for what, to you, is the earliest light. They see some pre-light that sets them off and chattering. Accept their news of the arrival of morning and get up, and start going to bed before day has fully given way to night.
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love to bake and make soup which is perfect on a frigid cold day and love to watch it snow.
And the 'icing on the cake' is that I don’t have to wear a bra!
fify!
Is there a connection to morning, afternoon, evening and late night people? Loving winter seems like it would go with being a night person.
Winter is great until the third big snowstorm. Summer is awful, but every so often there is a perfect day.
I don't feel SAD in summer, but excessive heat bothers me more than cold. On the other hand, when it is not >90 I love being outside and we use our deck constantly.
Why now? Why have we never heard of this before?
Your brain needs certain stimuli to maintain a regular schedule. Direct sunlight from above the plane of the horizon at a decent time in the morning and around sunset really helps you sleep.
Vitamin D levels are also linked to several health metrics and this is directly linked to the amount and consistency of exposure to the sun.
I am personally done with winter in the North myself. It took me a while to realize why February was such a hard month for me every year. At first I attributed it to the stress and weight loss associated with end of year wrestling tournaments but then the tournaments stopped and the depression onset still remained.
"Winter, on the other hand, is completely manageable by dressing properly."
Bullbleep! For some people it is, but not for me. At some point, I am cold and miserable, no matter how many layers I have on. My wife, on the other hand, is miserable in heat and humidity even with no clothes at all. People are different. Summer is bad for some people. Winter is bad for some people. Diversity, man.
I quite enjoyed the movie "Insomnia," which is partly about how you can go crazy in the endless summer days in the Arctic (Alaska). One of the Tik Toks you linked to had a very happy lady apparently enjoying this, but admitting that her dog might not like it much.
We've been in a place with lots of light for three years. My wife always gets up with the dogs, and they get up earlier in the summer. This year she insisted on new drapes so it can stay dark longer in the morning.
I think that the idolization of summer to an extent comes from that this country was essentially founded by Northern Europeans, and historically, summer was when the food for the year was grown. Fall is when it is harvested and laid up, for the winter, when we live off of the bounty from the summer. And, if we didn’t put enough food, or fuel, away for the winter, we died. Winter has always been the time of death for Northern Europeans, as well as for northern Asians. Besides dying of starvation or freezing, it is also when respiratory viruses take their highest toll.
We are running about 6 weeks behind schedule getting up to MT this year, and it is brutal here in AZ. When the sun beats down and the heat makes me sweat whenever I get out of my car outside my garage, I long for the crisp clean alpine valley in my native CO. Here, in AZ, it isn’t the winters that are brutal, but the summers. No one really questions why we would want to summer in MT and winter in AZ. Everyone understands, and most seem envious that we have the freedom that they don’t.
Your aerobic capacity is limited by cold, so it's not that you can just dress warmly for cold. You have to heat up to body temperature all the air you breathe in, which takes maybe a third of your energy capacity, if you're exercising hard.
People with summer affective disorder don’t own a boat…
Good gawd. I've lived in Alaska. Cowboy up, people. Use a blackout curtain in the summer. You can always make a room darker. You can't make it brighter. SAD lights provide some UV boost, but never the same as the sun. Disliking seasonal weather is not the same as SAD.
I'm not sure it's 'glorifying hot weather' that goes on. I suspect its more glorifying sunny days.
Growing up in Michigan and spending a good chunk of my life living all around the Great Lakes I've always loved autumn, but I also loved winter...as a younger man. Sometime in middle age I got tired of the cold, of having to scrape off my car or (shudder) warm it up before getting into it and driving off. I've lived in the South so long now, I can't even conceive of having to warm up my car before driving off.
But I do get the concept of liking the shortness of winter days. Maybe to me it was a part of the year I could get relief- as it got dark so early (4:30-5:00 pm), the day would seem to mostly slow down and not drag me out for long nights. I could, if I wanted, close myself off for a few weeks. To recharge and get ready for spring/summer when I knew I'd be going out and about more.
But there is no question that the 6 months of overcast skies, low ominous clouds, cold and snow would get to me. It would get to all of us. I didn't get depressed. I got cranky. And so did many around me. It was like living in a black and white movie when I lived in Michigan, Ohio, Western New York, Chicago. Then spring would come and suddenly it was like stepping into Oz- colors abounding. (Which also made spring so wonderful).
But when I moved to the Southeast, I suddenly got a dose of more sunny days. A LOT more sunny days. And I saw people walking upright, not hunched over for part of the year. People seemed friendlier, more hospitable, more open in the South. Was it the weather? I think that's part of it. In Michigan, it was all about survival- of the winter day and season. People scurrying about hunched over with their heads down, hands in pockets, not seeing anyone, just rushing to get inside- out of the cold. In the South it wasn't like that.
And even without harsh winters, spring was still glorious in Atlanta. If you've not seen the baby green of spring mixed with the Dogwoods, Azaleas, Pear trees and more in an Atlanta spring, you're missing out. It's beautiful.
And then Florida. I live on what's called the 'Suncoast'- Sarasota. So yeah- our weather is pretty typically blue skies, a lot of sun, and in the summer- heat and humidity. Like northerners get used to living in winter, we get used to living in the heat. But waking up every day to a blue sky, full sun is wonderful.
Maybe it's an age thing. I get the love of winter when younger. But I can tell you it's not bad having a sunny day most all of the year. It does make you smile more. But I have to confess...when it gets to be late October and we're still hot down here, I'm begging for January to come around soon.
>>Accept their news of the arrival of morning and get up, and start going to bed before day has fully given way to night.
Um,no. You have fun. I will trust that the sunrise looks just like all the ones before.
Spring and fall for me. Steelhead and ducks. Summer and winter are periods of preparation.
Connecting to nature in hard Upper Midwest winter is like walking on another planet: weird, beautiful, and dangerous. But there is not much life, not much connection to life, any life you see is barely hanging on. Connecting to nature in the extremely beautiful Upper Midwest summer is sooooo much more intimate.
As a born and bred Houstonian who has lived in Michigan for the last 30 years, I'll take the cold up here over the heat and humidity in Houston every time.
Throw in the giant bugs, slugs, and roaches that thrive in that climate and it's no contest.
Heat and humidity do play a role but, I think, the long days play the most blame. I don't sleep well when it's light out and it's rough on me when daylight starts at 4:30a and it doesn't get truly dark until almost 9p.
You should use a sleep mask or move South.
Cell phones and TV's will cause the same stimulus and disrupt sleep as well.
If the first thing you do in the morning and last thing you do at night is look at your cell phone you are also rewiring your brain and you will end up causing yourself problems there in similar ways to long days.
Yeah it's too bad everyone should get to experience the spectacularity of each and every season in it's full Glory of New England. I'm sure some people suffer from seasonal affective disorder here but they keep it to themselves. I've lived in California I lived in Utah Nevada Texas Georgia no other place is like New England. The peer pressure here is entirely focused on being a normal well-adjusted human being. You can be an asshole you can be a prick but one thing that isn't tolerated is being a coward or a cunt.
Life is beautiful.
It’s all about humidity and sunshine for me. Temps are less important. I stared at green buds in NYC with a sense of horror because of the humidity to come. Now I stare hoping to see buds because I live where winters are long and summers are mild. The cold temps in winter don’t bother me, but the gloom does.
I have joked that I used to spend summer months indoors in AC to escape heat and humidity, Now I spend winter months indoors with a fire going to escape the cold. Next winter I intend to be outside more…I just have to do it alone. My husband’s a weenie about cold.
S.J. Perelman had the right phrase to replace "coup de grace" in that comment about not needing bras in winter--"the beauty part." It was even the title of a 1962 theatrical flop starring Bert Lahr.
My only problem with winter is slipping and falling on the ice. That can ruin an otherwise happy and functional old age.
For that I would consider moving but where? Only the coasts have really good weather year round and who can afford that.
I've lived in Dallas and Las Vegas and you just don't go outside in summer there. And if the AC breaks you get a motel room.
Here in Texas, where we have 5 seasons, the regular 4 plus a few months imported from Hell every year, we survive by using air conditioning technology. Our electrical grid fails to expand rapidly enough to account for the annual population increase due to immigration, because those folk expect to be able to set the thermostat to 65F - 68F from May to September. Once they see a month or two of bills from Austin Energy, they generally abide at the mid-70s like those of us who have been here a while.
Winter is when you carry a sweater in the pickup, for when it is cold in the mornings. And if it stays below 50F all day, get out the ski jackets and Uggs, which are normally only worn in Colorado.
I had a work colleague many years ago who had summer SAD, or at least something akin to it. He claimed that he got into that frame of mind after being in the Navy, stationed in Hawaii. The sailors had to work outdoors in the direct sun, and he began to hate the absolute sameness of the weather pattern there.
He moved back to the Midwest after being discharged, and eventually ended up in Wisconsin when I met him - he was in his 60's. He would frequently gripe about hearing the weatherman on the radio coming into work say what a great (summer) day it was going to be with sun and heat. Likewise, it would raise his hackles when someone at work would complaining about the "lousy" winter weather on snowy, cloud-covered days.
He ended up taking up cross-country skiing in his 60's and became very good at it - placing in races in his age category. He would get out on the trail right behind his house every day there was snow and practice, and in the warmer months, he would roller-ski to keep in shape. He was in great physical shape when he retired.
Two words: Shade trees
Three words: Many shade trees
Many words: Many, huge, leafy, looming shade trees dangerously close to the house on the west side, preferably up the smallish hill that you wisely built your house below.
I don't know about Wisconsin, but the most depressing thing about Ohio winters are the continuous gray sky, slush, mud and cold rain when the temperatures range from 30-40. We rarely get the idyllic snowy weather. When it snows it is usually preceded or followed by ice storms which makes digging out much more hazardous and difficult. Being retired I can wait it out to some degree but when I was working or had to get my son to school it just a nuisance.
Two things made me move away from snow country:
1. No more scraping ice off a parked vehicle.
2. My driveway stays clear of accumulated frozen precipitation 99.9% of the time.
About 3/4 of the year is pleasant (or a bit cold, briefly) and the other 1/4 is hot in the afternoon and evening. I’ll take it.
My doctor diagnosed I have SAD in the winter. The cold doesn't bother me. I go outside everyday now that I'm retired, but before that I left for work and returned home everyday in the dark. She recommended a change of lightbulbs and eating my lunch outside. I didn't notice much of a change, but my family noticed the amount of energy I had appeared to have improved. I have always preferred to be cold rather than hot, and having more time to be outside in the snow is a real benefit of not having to go to work everyday.
I myself favor cooler temperatures a bit like Ann has expressed previously. A sunny or partly sunny 75 degrees with a light wind is plenty warm enough for me in the summer. My favorite time of year is fall, in the 60s with sun in the day cooling to 50s at night.
Some have mentioned humidity - that's a killer to me. I love Wisconsin summers and falls, but we always get a total of ~3-4 weeks of high humidity scattered throughout the summer, and it can get really high.
I read an article years ago about humidity in the Midwest... the US Midwest has the highest summer humidity for an area of a continent that is so far inland from any ocean. That's because of two factors: the prevailing winds from the Gulf of Mexico that blow northward towards the Great Lakes, and the fact that over that whole distance, there are no mountain ranges to cause that humid ocean air to drop its water content in the form of rain. Think about it - what other areas on earth have a distance of 800+ miles of 'flat' land between them and the nearest ocean?
I am definitely a "winter" person. I understood the light issue; daylight hours are too long in the summer. But I never realized until reading this that noise is another issue. Summer is noisy!
I also don't like the skimpiness of summer clothing. I'm more comfortable covered up.
And I hate the heat and especially the humidity. After 8 years without an air conditioner we finally broke down and got one (before they outlaw them). Am looking forward to testing it out on the next hot spell. Heat, be gone!
Old school attic fans are perfec for sleeping with the windows open in the summer
Summers I can work in my yard building things which is one of the principle joys in my life. In summef I must remain huddled indoors, bored to tears.
Should be something else to worry about.
"He would frequently gripe about hearing the weatherman on the radio coming into work say what a great (summer) day it was going to be with sun and heat."
I hated that too, before i stopped listening to weathermen. At least the internet weather sites don't rub it in.
I burn a LOT more carbon emissions in winter heating my home. My AC bill during the summer is pennies by comparison even on the hottest days.
But if you prefer the destruction of the planet, to each her own.
I love every season. In line with the common human tendency to feel victimized, I used to get upset because...I couldn't figure out which season I loved the most, as if this were a big problem.
In the Old Days you could survive in the South with just a fan with which to stay cool but it was hard. You accept that the temp will be at least 85, you are trying to avoid 115 at night. Blowing cool air in from the shady side of a tree-shaded house in late afternoon will do this. But AC is what made the South and Southwest liveable. With AC I liked it there, going out early in the morning and in the evening from late May to late September, huddling inside, 9 to 5, with the AC turned up for the rest of the day. When you wean southern summers off being hot, you will wean the people now living there off AC and the fossil fuel energy it requires. Here's one simple trick - ask Joe Biden whether he has shut off the AC in the White House.
On not being able to sleep when it is light about: you can block all light in your bedroom- this is within one's control.
I don't doubt Summer SAD is a thing, but Winter really is harder on people in general.
I've lived here all my life, and in summer I have to wonder what it was about this place that made my Opa and Oma (separately) want to stay. They were from northern Germany, and I how they stuck out the heat and humidity, pre AC, I'll never know.
But that applies more broadly. How did anyone survive without going nuts? (Oh wait, this is the South, so forget the question.)
Only nuts could endure the sun. And the heat. The humidity. Mosquitoes. The green hell encroaching inexorably, relentlessly . . .
I'll find you guys later. I gotta cut the yard.
"My only problem with winter is slipping and falling on the ice. That can ruin an otherwise happy and functional old age."
Go to Amazon and search for "Kahtoola."
Just kidding. I've arrived at that state of adult life when I pay a non-relative to maintain the yard, and I'm very happy with the guy. I do the trimming and pruning of bushes, trees, and the massive honeysuckle that has swallowed most of the chainlink fence on the west, in the backyard.
The only thing I like to do for its own sake in the summer sun is swim. If not for AC I might well move somewhere else.
We have power outages at all seasons. All in all, I tolerate outages in the cold better than in the heat--I sleep well only in a fairly narrow range of conditions of temp, humidity, and light, and always have. (Plus, the food keeps better in the winter, such as the last two we had.)
My wife is even worse--extreme (or not so extreme) conditions outside her narrow comfort zone make her miserable.
As a native Midwesterner of 65 years, I found the cold dreary and colorless days of Winter quite challenging. I also found it difficult to deal with the hot, humid days of July, August and September.
For the last 4 years I have lived in southern AZ where I deal with pleasant, colorful Winters and very hot, dry Summers. However, I rarely go more than a day without spending a few hours outside and enjoying the sunshine and constantly changing colors. The Summer is brutally hot, so we are active in the early AM or later PM.
One of the first things I noticed after moving to AZ was that people my age were noticeably more active, slimmer and happier than my cohorts in the Midwest. Gee. I wonder why.
I think it's FUN, watching the nightly news (in any of three seasons of the year..);
where they will finish up a report about HOW TERRIBLE global warming is, and follow with:
And next is Jill, to tell us how long this glorious warm weather will last!!
I grew up in Chicago and left for California when I was 18. Winters were awful. Slush and dirt everywhere. California was paradise until the least 20 years. Then the Democrats got control and went crazy. Finally left five years ago. AZ is hot but I don't mind heat as long as I have A/C. My wife has lung issues and could not survive in a place like Oregon. She visited there 3 weeks ago and came home sick. Dry heat is best for her. I did live in New Hampshire for a year and did not mind the cold as the show was clean. I was recovering from back surgery and was careful about ice but had no trouble.
I prefer cold to hot. one can put on a sweater/coat and go outside when its cold. When its' hot you can't do much except crank up the AC or head for the nearest swimmin' hole.
I hate hate hate hot summer weather, but one of the benefits of living in the Bay Area is that cool foggy air reliably rolls in as the sun sets. There are few greater summer delights than throwing open your doors and windows at the end of a day and sleeping comfortably under a heavy quilt.
Kahtoolas look nice. I noticed you wore something on your boots in winter. I bought Icetrax, which look similar. Love them. Work well.
San Francisco proper weather is rarely warm, in the way that spring and summer would be on the east coast. The hills form a backbone down the middle of the city, keeping the cool ocean air trapped along the western side, socking us in with unrelenting marine layer from June thru August. If you drive north into SF from the peninsula along I-280 in summer you can see the fog pouring over the coastal range. It can be 85 in San Mateo and 55 at Ocean Beach. I live for those short-term heat waves that hit the Bay Area.
Come September the days shorten but the skies clear with balmy temps right up to mid-November. This is our summer.
In summary:
To each his own.
Winter is fine so long as someone else clears the snow and since that is me no thanks.
I prefer sunny,low humidity, temps from 65 degrees to 80 degrees.
What I like about summer is that the livin’, as the song goes, is easy. Just hop out of bed and you’re good to go. In winter you have to dress like you’re going on a spacewalk just to step out the door.
Winter: The joy of waiting for a blizzard to blow itself out. The pleasure one gets from starting up the loader tractor in subzero weather. Then spending a day digging though the drifts blocking the lane.
Cheerfully chopping ice out of the livestock tanks because another tank heater crapped out.
The delight in thawing out a car door frozen shut by an ice storm.
The misery of finding newborn lambs frozen by a cold snap. The euphoria of going out in the middle of the night to start the generator to keep the heat on in the lambing barn.
Winter? Bah, Humbug!!
I enjoy winter… In Florida. No snow, no ice, no bundling up like an Eskimo. That’s why I live here, and I’ll put up with a long, hot, humid summer as part of the deal. But I’m glad the rest of you like northern winters, since Florida is already too crowded. Plus we have alligators, snakes, giant cockroaches and mosquitoes.
I will add that I have enjoyed visiting Up North in the summertime. I'm a big fan of northern Michigan and the U.P. I would not be averse to visiting Wisconsin, except that my mom lives in Michigan.
I lived in Phoenix for seven years. Winters there are great but a seven month summer (four months at 100+ and three more at 90+) is too long. I prefer having four seasons of three months each. By the time you're getting tired of one season, a new one comes along.
The coldest winter I ever spent was August in San Francisco - Mark Twain.
If you've ever visit Fort Presidio, you know what Twain meant. The fog and wind can come off the Pacific Ocean/SF Bay and cut through you like a knife.
My wife and I Eurailed around parts of Europe in April-May 1978.
It taught me quickly the importance of latitude to climate and weather. Even in May it was COLD some mornings, and of course the days were longer.
My wife felt cold or chilly except in the even-too-warm-for-her rooms we sometimes took.
Only winter in the South was late 69 through Feb 70. First at Ft. Benning, later at Ft. Jackson. Both places, we were told, were having a record cold winter. Indeed, in GEORGIA, they were taking precautions against frostbite.
Couple of warm weeks in Naples not so long ago. But...boring.
Doc.
I miss the fighting over just cleared residential parking spots and the lawn furniture in the streets.
Being of Irish heritage my skin does not react well to the sun.
Tp me, the perfect day is 45 degrees and overcast.
I have spent the last 36 years in Georgia.
We moved to Madison from southern California in January 1992 60° and overcast in CA, 12° in Madison. We were prepared by my co-workers in California, some of which had moved from Madison to CA, so it was no big shock. Even during our first full winter there, when MadTownGal's minivan wouldn't start when she was getting ready to come home from a Women's Retreat on the East side, I knew from experience what I was up against. It was bright, sunny and minus 20° with a gentle breeze. I didn't hate or fear the cold; I learned to respect it.
Come summer, it was a lot harder for us as our rental house had 1940s wiring and couldn't support our window A/C unit without blowing a fuse every 10 minutes, so we learned to live with window fans. California gets hotter in summer but nowhere near as humid. So we preferred spring and fall to summer, and dealt with the worst of winter, especially snow and ice on the roads.
Now in PA, we have the worst of both worlds with the summer humidity and just enough frozen precipitation to keep things 'interesting.' On the other hand, the rural lifestyle - learning to drive slowly around the buggies - and the absence of big-city problems - is a welcome change.░
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