Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.11.2015, Síða 27

Winter is kind of scary, especially on this
ungodly windy, hella random rock in the
middle of the ocean. And it’s even scarier
when the sun all but vanishes from the
heavens above. So after hearing and shar-
ing horror stories about three-hour days,
blizzards and seasonal depression, we
(two interns fond of co-writing things and
referring to ourselves in the third person)
are all-out terrified of the coming months.
Who are we?
Allow us introduce ourselves. Becky has
one terrible, awful, soul-stifling Icelandic
winter under her belt. You’d think this
would be good experience and all that,
except sometimes when she thinks of last
year’s November-March, she can only
remember begging any and all deities for
just, like, a minute of sunlight.
Alex is spending his first winter north
of ye ole lands of Nether. He’s also ner-
vous, maybe even more so because Becky
will often sputter horror stories about Ice-
landic winter, completely unprompted. But
he has Icelandic blood in him and a great-
er strength of will, so he might be fine. He’ll
be fine... Probably.
In preparation for this dalliance with
weather god and planetary overlord alike,
we sat down with Erla Björnsdóttir, a psy-
chologist and sleep expert, as well as the
CEO of Betri svefn and vice president of
the Icelandic Sleep Research Society.
Since she knows a thing or two about
Seasonal Affective Disorder, she helped
us hammer down the facts and fallacies of
SAD. During our talk with Erla, we learned
many things, which we’ve summarized in
the section below. All quotes are from Erla.
FAQs about SAD
/ the SAD truth
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
“It is the form of depression that gets
worse when the days start to get shorter.
It’s bound with the season. That’s the dis-
tinctive factor.”
What are the symptoms?
“You sleep a lot and you eat a lot. And you
eat a lot of carbohydrate-heavy foods.”
Is it a clinical condition?
“Yes. You have to be pretty affected to
have the clinical diagnosis of Seasonal
Affective Disorder, that’s when it’s having
some negative impact on your life other
than just a lack of energy that many of us
feel during these dark months in Iceland.”
Who should I contact if I’m feeling the
affects of SAD?
“The GP is often a good start because he
knows you, he knows your history. He can
then refer you to experts who are working
with this.”
When should I seek help?
“I think if you are at the point where you
think, ‘I should seek help,’ then you should.
You never go to a psychologist for too little
reason. If you are there, there is a reason.”
What treatments are used to help with
the symptoms of SAD?
“We know that the sunlight is the best
cure for this kind of depression. So we
have these artificial sunlight lamps that
we can use, and sometimes that’s enough.
But sometimes it’s more severe, and you
need medication or some behavioral ther-
apy to go along with it.”
What does SAD have to do with sleep?
“Many of my patients who suffer from in-
somnia also have SAD. I often see there’s
a high peak during the dark months at my
[sleep] clinic.”
The serious side
During the interview, we also discov-
ered that larger-scale, politically debated
changes could help the battle with SAD.
Erla is the vice president of the Icelandic
Sleep Research Society, and one of the
main objectives of the society has been
to change Iceland’s time zone to observe
daylight savings time.
She thinks this change could come
with important benefits: “If we were on
the right time zone, we would have, for
example, six weeks more of bright morn-
ings. And it’s the morning brightness that
really sets our internal clock... it’s most
important for us to get brightness in the
mornings.” Erla even linked the effects of
time zone and daytime darkness with high
school dropout rates, noting that she sees
many smart young boys in her sleep clinic
in the winter. Many young men end up
dropping out of school because of trouble
getting up in the morning.
Coming away from our meeting with
Erla, we learned that SAD is a serious
thing. It’s funny because its acronym
spells the name of a common emotion,
but it’s not funny because it’s something
that really affects people’s lives. As you
go about the darkened days, please keep
a sharp mind and a sharp eye out for the
symptoms of SAD. Though our advice may
seem silly at times, we are taking this dis-
order seriously. And we admire all com-
rades out there doing the same.
Stay tuned for our future accounts of
winter struggles, . We’ll be keeping track
of the winter blues and giving you every-
thing you need to make it through this
semi-endless night.
Words Rebecca Conway
& Alexander de Ridder
Photo Gabrielle Motola
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