What sort of interest is there on daylight savings? We’ve been saving for ages, but we’ve never spent any. These colder fall and winter months include not only a break from the heat of July and August, but also a break from the long and bright days of summer. Days when it’s easy to get out and breathe some fresh air, get in some physical activity, and generally feel better and happier. Not to mention that precious sunlight converting certain cholesterols in the skin into the vitally important vitamin D. Studies have shown for ages that mood and health decline along with the colder months. This begs the question “why do we roll back our clocks and lose an entire hour of precious daylight?” Though you and I may have been asking that question for a long time, researchers from the UK are asking it now and they’re being heard much more loudly and clearly than we.

Mayer Hillman of London’s Policy Studies Institute suggests that daylight savings doesn’t actually save anything. In fact, it eliminates “about 300 additional hours of daylight for adults each year, and 200 more for children.” He published a report on Friday 10/29/2010 online in the British Medical Journal that details studies that demonstrated people’s general decline in mood and energy levels in the shorter days of winter. Even if the extended daylight hour didn’t spur more people into exercising more, it would likely help toward a decline of other known conditions related to the darker winter months: poor mood and depression.

Dr. Robert Graham of New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital agrees with the idea on the basis of vitamin D’s importance. He stated that “Lessons learned by the explosion of research on the benefits of vitamin D add to the argument for not putting the clocks back.”

Up to 20% of Americans experience a form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) through the winter months. It is a type of depression and in many cases is linked to changes in the amount of daylight at different times of year. It can lead to changes in appetite, fatigue, weight gain, anxiety, and even avoidance of social situations. It is thought that winter onset SAD is caused by the body’s reaction to less sunlight, which is another good reason for keeping that extra hour of light.

Doctors will often also prescribe medications to deal with SAD, but as is often the case…the best answers can be found in nature.

The road to weight loss is a long, winding, and often rocky road for most people. You follow all the right plans, dieting and exercising, but still unable to lose weight and in some cases even gaining. Until recently there weren’t many other factors to consider other than caloric intake, exercise, and metabolism. A recent study performed at The Ohio State University, and published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences seeks to suggest a factor that you might never expect: night time light exposure.

A lab test involving mice that were exposed to dim light at night over roughly 60 days gained 50% more body mass than ones who were subjected to a normal cycle of light and dark. They were fed the same amount of food, and shared the same levels of activity, and yet the group with the night time lighting appeared to get fatter. The lighting seemed to have the most effect in that even though they didn’t eat any more food than the other group; they were eating at times when they normally wouldn’t. In fact, as a control they were scheduled a precise feeding time instead of having food to eat whenever they were hungry. When this was the case, they did not gain more weight.

Now, the idea of lighting having an effect on weight gain may very well sound preposterous at first. However, after looking closer at the science of metabolism it makes a little more sense. The researchers believe that these dim levels of light have an effect on melatonin, a hormone that has important function in metabolism. They also believe that being exposed to light at night can disrupt genes that control when animals are active and when they eat.

Things that contribute to light exposure at night like TV and computer use have long been theorized to play a part in weight gain and obesity; however they are now being scrutinized from a different perspective. Before, the lack of physical activity that resulted from prolonged hours of TV watching and computer use at night was viewed as the main risk for obesity. With this new research it may be possible that the light exposure and opportunity for eating at the wrong times to properly metabolize the food could be as much or more to blame.

This data can’t be misconstrued as “just turn off the lights and you’ll lose weight”, but it can help some of the people who do everything else they’re supposed to and still struggle.

As our lives become busier and faster paced, it’s hard to remember to take the time to “stop and smell the flowers” as they used to say. Stress can build up to enormous levels that will seem insurmountable to most, and lead to some serious health risks if not dealt with in a timely manner. Everyone is familiar with the feeling of being ground down by the daily events and unexpected emergencies that can arise in our day to day lives, but many people aren’t aware of the long term effects that can be left by it. Here are just a few of the lesser known conditions that can be caused or affected by stress:

• High cholesterol
  
• High blood pressure
  
• Insomnia
  
• Headaches
  
• Hair loss
  
• Weight Gain
  
• Acne
  
• Wrinkles
  
• Cancer

One way of combating stress that won’t cost you anything more than your time is meditation. Whether or not you have any of these kinds of conditions, you can feel the effects of meditation even if it’s just for five minutes a day. Just like with exercise though, the more you can do it, the better. There are many types of meditation, but whichever you choose, do it as often as possible. Whether it’s during the day, or when you lay down to go to sleep at night.

For a quick meditation, try these few steps:

1. Take a deep breath, hold it, and count to four, then release it. As you release it, feel the tension in your body begin to drain away.

2. Repeat the deep breath, but this time hold it until a count of eight and again feel the tension lift as you exhale. Try to allow your entire body to go limp.

3. Take a third deep breath, and hold it as long as you comfortably can this time. Feel your entire body relax as you let it out.

4. Concentrate on your breath. Try to imagine seeing the air going in and out of your mouth, expanding and relaxing your lungs.

5. Imagine the oxygen filling your lungs and entering your blood stream as fresh, new energy. Energy that will revitalize your whole body. Imagine the air you breath out to be all the stress and anxieties you may carry with you.

6. Repeat this whenever you can.