How to cope with long winter nights when the clocks go back

As the clocks go back and darkness falls, spare a thought for those experiencing the longest nights in the UK.

In the middle of winter, Scotland’s northern isles will see just six hours of daylight from morning to evening.

People in London and the south will have around two hours more light than islanders in Orkney and Shetland.

According to the Royal College of Psychiatry, more than a million people in the UK experience symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during these short days.

These may include low mood, emotional difficulties, and feelings of anxiety.

• Sadness is a recurring seasonal depression that is common in winter and usually occurs as the days become shorter and daylight decreases.
• It was described in the early 1980s by Prof Norman Rosenthal, a South African psychiatrist working in the United States who began using light therapy as a treatment.
• Symptoms of Sadness described by the NHS include feeling down, irritability, loss of interest in daily activities and feeling sleepy during the day.
• Patients may also have feelings of hopelessness, guilt, and worthlessness, have difficulty concentrating, and experience decreased sexual desire.

Life in remote places, in the countryside or on islands, can be particularly challenging during the darker months, says Professor Hester Parr.

He leads the ‘Living with Sorrow’ project at the University of Glasgow.

“People with Sadness routinely feel very depressed and lethargic,” he told BBC Scotland News.

“They find it difficult to socialize at this time of year because they do not have enough energy and motivation.

“We work with these people to provide creative and cultural resources to encourage a more outdoorsy life and give tips on creating new ‘light routines’.”

Prof Parr points out that people in rural areas often have limited access to social and medical support to help them through the winter.

So this year, for the first time, Orkney islanders are being offered therapeutic lamps to help them cope with Sad and counteract the effects of low light.

These will be distributed from libraries as part of the ‘Winter Well’ boxes.

The lamps come with an activity guide and tools to help people develop a routine for good mental health when daylight is inadequate.

Prof Parr says: “We are putting our resources into an attitudinal shift, a psychological mindset shift towards winter.

“So we can go out and enjoy the winter no matter what the weather is like.

“We put it into a book and a CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) course in partnership with a psychiatrist.”

Among the tools in the box is a winter sky frame.

This is a simple cardboard cutout that people are encouraged to hold for 10 minutes to observe a small section of the sky to help improve their mood.

Prof Parr says the UK can also take lessons from the Scandinavian countries, where there is a “different cultural attitude towards winter”.

Creating a comfortable and soothing indoor light environment can help people cope with Sadness, he says.

“We tend to go into winter thinking it’s going to be a long, dark season, and that’s not actually true.

“When we go outside there is plenty of daylight which helps our mental health.

“But it’s not just about going outside and getting light, it’s about reimagining our interiors.

“Using natural light from windows, but also using candles and fun lights to make winter spaces in our homes more inviting.”

• The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the UK; The day with the least daylight and the longest night. This year it falls on December 21st.
• In northern Scotland, the sun rises later and sets much earlier than in southern England, depending on the tilt of the Earth away from the Sun.
• At the winter solstice, the difference in daylight between the northernmost and southernmost parts of the UK is more than two hours.
• time on December 21 Penzance in CornwallThe sun will rise at 08:18 and set at 16:21. That’s eight hours and three minutes of daylight.
• Inside in Lerwick, Shetland It will rise at 09:08 and set at 14:57; it will only get five hours and 49 minutes of daylight.

The Orkney scheme is the next step of the project, which was piloted in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, last winter.

It is a joint project of the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, funded by UKRI (UK Innovation and Research).

Nearly 100 Wintering Well boxes were made available, having been borrowed more than 200 times and renewed 349 times.

Orkney Library’s mobile van, known as Booky McBookface, will help distribute the lights across the islands.

Former librarian Stewart Bain, now a presenter on Radio Orkney, says the boxes will be welcomed by local people.

He says there’s “no denying it could be a dark place” as the clocks go back.

“It gets to that stage where it’s dark when I go to work and dark when I come home,” he says.

“By the end of winter it will be dark after three o’clock, pitch black at four o’clock.

“I think the combination of lack of sunlight and lack of exercise may have an effect.

“I think it definitely affects my mood. One of the most important things for mental health is being able to go outside for a walk.”

Stewart says using the Orkney library system to deliver light bulbs is the ideal solution.

“It’s great as another branch of what the library does,” he adds.

“The library is such a good thing for mental health, it may be grim and gray in Orkney but you can teleport anywhere within the pages of a book.”

Libraries in Dublin, Ireland, are also preparing to try this plan.

It also inspired a new five-part series Winter’s Well on BBC Radio 4.

Prof Parr says the project found that the use of therapeutic lamps, along with new outdoor routines and “programmed encouragement” to notice natural light, really made a difference for people with Sad.