Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Time change can trigger seasonal depression, even in sunny Las Vegas

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Steve Marcus

A view of the Las Vegas skyline at sunset. Those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder grow depressed in the waning light of winter.

When Las Vegas resident Deedee Fronius was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder in 2008, it would take everything to scrape herself out of bed, she said.

She lived in Hawaii, where the dark and rainy days had her meandering through the afternoons feeling lethargic and crestfallen.

“My whole body just feels heavy,” she said. “My brain feels heavy. It’s exhausting.”

At the time, Fronius did not recognize her symptoms as synonymous with those of the disorder. Now in Las Vegas since 2014 with her husband and kids, she treats her disorder — not as frequently triggered because of Las Vegas’ sun-drenched year — with medication.

Las Vegans turned their clocks back one hour last week to end daylight saving time. With the resumption of standard time, the sun here begins to dip below the horizon around 4:30 p.m. when most people are still working. And for some, it also means the onset of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a major depressive disorder.

SAD affects 10 million to 20 million people in the United States, usually starting in the fall and continuing into the winter months, according to the Mayo Clinic. It affects the mood and motivation for people with the malady.

“Because I was in such a bad place, all I did was cry,” Fronius said. “It was almost a relief (when I was diagnosed) because then I was like, ‘At least I’m not crazy.’ ”

Fewer daylight hours, particularly in December and January, add to Fronius’ weariness, though not as significantly as the near-flooding rains the region saw over the summer. On those days, the weighty stagnation returns, she said, but a windowless office at the insurance company where she works helps block out the day’s weather if it is too much to bear.

Vanassa Weiland was diagnosed with depression eight years ago, and when standard time rolls around every year, she said she noticed a stark change in her mood and behavior. The combination of arthritis flare-ups and a herniated disc — which causes her bones to ache, she said — with her depression can be even more difficult to confront, and the cold weather becomes an excuse to linger at home, postpone plans or avoid them altogether.

When she was first diagnosed, Weiland said a gloomy day would catapult her into weeks or months of depression. In these times, she said she felt physically exhausted and mentally powerless, overwhelmed with guilt from the burden she felt she put on her husband because of her depression. Now, poor weather may only knock her out for a day because of the help she’s received from her husband and her therapist.

“I definitely noticed in the winter, the earlier it gets dark, the less and less I’m motivated to even do something,” she said. “There are days that I get down on myself, but luckily my husband is very, very uplifting. He always helps me out, and even when I don’t think there’s a light, he’ll help me see it.”

As Fronius and Weiland described, feelings of heaviness and lethargy, as well as fatigue, irritability and social insecurities, are common symptoms for those who experience SAD. While a cause for the disorder is undetermined, treatment can maneuver between medication, light therapy — to supplement the lack of natural daylight — and counseling, according to Psychology Today.

Christopher Kearney, distinguished professor and chair in UNLV’s psychology department, said that the well-documented disorder could be the ​​result of changes in neurotransmitters, the body’s chemical transmitters, or melatonin, a hormone adjacent to the sleep cycle, when the days get shorter or when the body’s circadian rhythm is disrupted.

One study from 2017 analyzed 185,419 hospital contacts for unipolar depression — or depression that does not fluctuate between moods — and discovered an increase of 11% in incident rates of unipolar depression during the transition from summertime to standard time, or “falling back.”

Mounting distress from earlier sunsets causing limited daylight could explain the finding, the study indicated. The same study showed no parallel change when we “spring forward,” or move from standard time to summertime, which this year occurred March 14.

“The less amount of light, especially in the winter months, does seem to trigger depressive episodes in a number of people,” Kearney said. “The fact is, you get less light in winter no matter what time sunset and sunrise is. It has to do more with the fact that there’s less light during the day.”

The Nevada Legislature this year considered setting the state to either standard or summertime permanently with Senate Bill 153.

The bill, however, will not take effect unless California decides along the same lines — and if Congress approves the change. The only states on standard time year-round are Arizona and Hawaii.

Fronius said mental health issues like SAD do not need to be seen as burdensome or insurmountable. Long-standing stigmas around depression and other disorders can be subverted by seeking out and accepting treatment, she said.

“If you have those feelings like ‘I can’t function,’ get help,” she said. “Mental health is just as important as physical health. … There’s nothing to be ashamed of about mental health. That stigma needs to go away.”