Beating the blues

Many of you will have heard of ‘Blue Monday’, often dubbed as the most depressing day of the year. This year it falls on Monday 20th of January – week 3 of our university term. The date was worked out using a combination of factors such as the weather, the time since Christmas, debt and low motivation. The questionable formula used to work out this date has been argued to be pseudo-science, with the maths relying on factors that cannot be quantised.

However, despite the formula being widely criticised and discredited, many people still experience a lowered mood in January. The‘winter blues’ is a general term, not a medical diagnosis, and is generally less severe than Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D). However, despite it being a much milder form of despression, it still isn’t pleasant to be in the throws of the winter blues, and many of us will be. The lack of sunlight, the dissipation of the excitement of Christmas and new year festivities and the increasing work-load still affects many students.

Although it seems tempting to try and ward off the blues by staying warm in bed, catching up on Sherlock and eating endless takeaways, this can lower your mood in the
long run. So instead, here are three scientifically proven ways to beat the blues:

Eat yourself happy

The highs and lows than you can feel throughout January are often caused by an increase or a deficit of energy. ‘Eat yourself happy’ might seem like appealing advice if you think it means gorging on your favourite foods in order to comfort yourselves in the winter months, but it’s not that simple. The ideal foods to regularly eat are those with a low glycaemic index (G.I). The glycaemic index measures how quickly the body breaks down food, releases glucose levels in the bloodstream and raises blood sugar levels. Eating low G.I. foods means that the food breaks down and releases sugar slowly, meaning that the body has a longer-lasting supply of energy and doesn’t experience the highs and lows of a sugar rush.

Low G.I. foods to try and eat include cheap student-staples such as brown bread, porridge oats, whole-wheat pasta, instant noodles and, for those of you with a sweet-tooth, Nutella!

Get outside

Another scientifically proven way of boosting your mood in winter is to get as much sunlight as possible. Sitting in lecture halls, the library or your bedroom only exposes you to a light intensity of 200 lux, whereas natural light provides 10,000 lux. This is a significant difference when it comes to your mood, as the amount of light that you are exposed to can affect your seratonin levels, which is the mood-boosting hormone in your body.

There may not be a huge amount of sunlight during the winter, but just getting out side every day can make a difference to your mood. Even if it seems cold, grey and utterly unappealing outside, you’ll feel much better for going for a quick walk at the weekend. And, when the snow begins to fall, don’t stay in bed – grab your hat, scarf and gloves and go have a snowball fight. The endorphins from the exercise will do you a world of good!

Do something different

There is increasing evidence that cognitive behavioural therapy (C.B.T) has a positive effect on those suffering from mild depression. One part of the therapy involves encouraging patients to undergo behavioural changes. Altering your behaviour can mean just small changes to your everyday life, scheduling new activites into your routine. These can be as simple as meeting up with friends for a coffee, going to the gym, or even heading out to Smack one night! Although these seem like minor things, many find it incredibly hard not to head straight to the comfort of their beds and laptop once lectures have ended for the day. However, just scheduling regular social activities or something new that gets you out of the house is proven to make a huge difference to your mood. If you’re already a social butterfly or regular gym-goer, then try something totally new, like volunteering or a part-time job.