Gift Idea if Suffering from SAD

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - If you feel like you’ve been yawning a lot and dragging a little over the past couple of weeks, it could be that you need more sunshine.

Dr. Kelly Bennett, a Texas Tech Physician in Family Medicine, says when the days shorten and it gets dark earlier, you are setting yourself up for a real condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD if you don’t make yourself go outside and enjoy the sunlight for a few minutes every day. She adds. “Especially if you happen to work somewhere, that you don’t have windows, and so you’re only under artificial light all day. That’s the worst.”

Dr. Bennett says she wanted to do this interview outside because we all need a little sunshine every day to be the most productive.

She explains, “You need to be able to find a way to get out into that sun at some point during those darkest days of winter, even if it’s just for 20 minutes, even if it’s overcast, even if you’re wearing a coat and a toboggan and a scarf, you still need to get that sunlight.”

The pandemic is partly to blame for making this a bigger issue for many families...ever since people were encouraged to stay at home in an effort to slow the virus.

Now, Dr. Bennett says it’s time to enjoy a little sun again. For those who can’t leave the house, she says a sun lamp. could literally brighten your day and your mood.

She says, “They’re actually very cheap. You can buy them for $30 to $40 on Amazon or Walmart or something like that. And they can be set to come on gradually to mimic dawn.”

Sounds like the perfect Christmas gift for someone who needs to brighten their day.

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