Throughout November, Furniture Village offered customers in-store lightboxes supplied by leading UK manufacturer of medically-proven light therapy products, The LitePod Company, to help boost shoppers' mood and energy levels during the winter.
When the daylight hours are shortened, people commonly suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
According to the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA), two million people suffer from a serious case of SAD in the UK, and as many as one in eight have 'winter blues', which can cause sleep patterns, energy levels and mood to change during the autumn and winter months. This type of depression is related to a lack of natural daylight that people are exposed to, as light stimulates the hypothalamus in the brain, which controls mood, appetite and sleep. Lack of light can cause a chemical/hormonal imbalance which prevents the hypothalamus from working properly. Although SAD can prevent people from functioning normally in day-to-day life, for many it is a mild discomfort that can just make it a little bit more difficult to wake up in the morning and get going.
Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, has a lot in common with the hibernation cycle of animals, and research has shown that this is triggered by a response to decreasing light levels. As the days grow shorter and the light becomes less intense, it increases the desire to 'hibernate'.
