Seasonal Affective Disorder — S.A.D. for short — is a mood disorder that often occurs during times of the year when the days are shorter and daylight is hard to come by. Anchorage — where UAA is located — happens to be a place that gets minimal daylight during the winter, with the days being as short as 5.5 hours on and around the winter solstice.
The shortness of these days, in combination with daylight savings time “removing” an hour during the winter, leaves many people stuck inside the whole time the sun is above the horizon. As such, it is incredibly common for those who experience S.A.D. to be acutely aware of how dark it is outside during the winter — feeling more sluggish and depressed as a result.
What if people didn’t have to feel this way? Why is it that happiness is so binary? If the sun is up, people are happy, and if it’s not, people aren’t?…