The Washington Post (11/11, Stillman) reported, “Record warmth made this past week feel like early fall or even late summer across much of the nation, yet winter has already started – ‘solar winter,’ that is.” This “marks the beginning of the darkest – and, for some people, the most depressing ‘‘ stretch of the year. Solar winter is defined as the quarter of the calendar year with the least amount of daylight.” This period “is most closely aligned with the typical onset of winter seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Those who suffer from SAD – about 5 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the American Psychiatric Association – experience depression linked to reduced daylight. SAD can last up to five months, well beyond the end of solar winter.”
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