Thanks for the clips, Doreen!

The 'migration' theory isn't one I've heard before, though it's interesting! (and, as you say, tempting!)

One thing that keeps jumping out at me: the 'fact' that more women suffer from SAD than men. I suspect the difference is simply one of reporting, i.e. that women are more likely to seek outside help for depression, while men are more likely to self-medicate with alcohol, etc., or just ignore the symptoms. If that's true, SAD wouldn't (necessarily) have anything to do with female reproductive hormones, fertility, infant survival, etc.

This is the first fall/winter in eons (probably in recorded history!) that we haven't had much dark rainy weather (so far, anyway). I'm noticing that the hours of sunlight, reduced as they are, seem to be enough to hold the worst of the symptoms at bay. It seems that if I get an hour of SAD-light in the morning, followed by an hour's walk in the sun sometime during the day, plus maybe a half-hour of SAD-light in the late afternoon, I'm OK! So for me, the SAD seems to be triggered more by the persistent gloom we get here in the winter, coupled with the endless rain that means I can't get out and walk. (OK, I *can,* technically, but you ain't suffered till you've tried walking in a winter Vancouver monsoon!)

I don't have any more 'light' to shed on the subject. I'm keeping a daily diary of how I'm feeling, the weather, any light therapy or sunlight walks I'm doing, and any supplements I'm taking, plus what I'm eating. Maybe some patterns will emerge.

Rachel