On seven hundred wlwoh, yes, the time change. You wake up, it's dark outside, you get home from work, it's dark outside, just darkness and developing like we need this right now. Well, all the bad news in the world, it just makes things worse. Doctor Catherine Athens is a expert in this area and author of numerous books. And there's a connection between the darkness and our mental health. We all know about this, but what new information is there out there?
And how do you cope with it? As we lose time another hour this weekend, Doctor Catherine, good morning, how are you?
I'm fine, Thank you, good morning, thanks for having me, and good morning to all your listeners as well.
I'm already just thinking about the time change, getting depressed.
I know. It's funny.
When I was younger, I mean, I love cold weather, love the snow and all that stuff. But the fifteen hours of darkness a day, it really hasn't effect the owner I get the worst it is? Is there some is there connecting with an age and lack of sunlight?
Well, we don't get as much sunlight when we get older, do We were not outside playing all the time? You know, kids are outside, We tell them go outside. And play and although you know with a digital age it may have changed a lot. But adults are behind a desk, usually sitting under a fluorescent light, which is not good for the brain at all. And usually we're stooped over, we're dehydrated, we're drinking coffee to stay away, or maybe eating that nice jelly donut, and we're just trying to
brace ourselves to get through the day. So the thing to do in the morning is to drink some warm water. You can drink it with lemon. You can put a little bit of apple cider vinegar in there, which is good for cleaning the kidneys and the liver, which are two organs that help get rid of poisons. So why do we get depressed? We become over poxified in our bodies because we're stationary and the things we eat aren't necessarily nurishing. They taste good, though, So I tell people
think about the basics. Think about doing some deep breathing, starting your day with an affirmation of something positive. Think about that during the day, and sip water. Bring a water bottle or water container, sip it all day. The brain needs water to function, and most of us are dehydrated, especially.
When you're inside and the air is dryer, it's not as humid, you're not, so you spend more time in die Why you get sick because you're dried out. So hydration is a critical thing to remaining well in the winter months, for sure. What does a lemon do for me?
Though? How does that?
Does that beat depression in the lack of sunlight? Is it's vitamin C.
It's vitamin C. But it also helps to cleanse the liver. And you know, God bless our livers because they're always pulling toison out of our bloodstreams for us and trying to get rid of it so it doesn't circulate so much around the body, and the limit helps the liver do that. It also helps the kidneys to function, and it helps the water to taste better so you'll drink it. Sure, So there's lots of good reasons. You know. The thought
of this darkness is horrific for people. So I help people look start by getting out in the sun more often when there is sun. Try to take your lunch break and maybe take something like this sandwich that you can eat while you're slowly walking, or go to the park and sit in the sun. And they have a little bite to eat, so that way you're getting more sun. Even though we're not getting more sun, that will help the brain a.
Lot, right, But I mean, here's the problem here, doctor Catherine Athens. Here's the problem with Cincinnati, Ohio. Problem with Cincinnati, Ohio is we literally will not see the sun until opening day this year when the red started, and even then that may be again, but there may be a couple hours. I think in the next six months we'll
see the sun. But it's just a mere rumor. It's actually a lot of people right around April start to question whether or not the sun actually exists, if it's not just one of those Internet rumors or a myth or fake news or something like that, because we're pretty sure after by the time we get through February that the sun just doesn't exist anymore.
Okay, all right, Well, there are things you can do. There is something called full spectrum light bulbs that you can buy and replace your light bulbs at home with the full spectrum because part of the seasonal effective disorder, that depression, is we're not getting some of the spectrum of the sun. If you're really bad off, there are machines that you can buy. They're not too expensive, and they will you can sit have them sit in front
of you. You can watch TV or listen to the radio and they will project full spectrum light at you.
Okay, how many? How many hours?
You know?
My wife got me one last year of Christmas. I said I'm gonna try. I never used it because I'm just naturally positive. As you can tell here. I'm a national treasure, is what I am. Doctor, and I have a user. Yeah, I plan on maybe cracking that thing.
Now?
How long?
How many hours a day? If you've got the happy light as they call them, they're pretty cheap. You can get on Amazon too. I didn't know about the light bulbs. You could full spectrum light bulbs and the same thing. So if you got your I don't know, your easy chair next to your couture, you know, light next to your touch plays, use that when you're sitting there watching TV.
How many hours a day do you need that?
Though not very many? Actually you could start off with maybe two, one in the morning and one in the evening. You know, maybe two. If you don't have two, start off with twenty minutes a few times a day if you're home, but at least twenty minutes at a time, and it's really very useful. It helps a lot. It helps to retard that sad kind of syndrome in the winter with no light. Another thing is, if it's too
cold to go outside, do some aerobic exercise inside. Get the blood going through your body, you know, get circulation going along with the light, and that will help the feeling of sadness and depression. It will actually make you feel better, more positive.
Well, exercise is good for you.
I mean I noticed in the days that if I go a few days between workouts, I notice I start to get a little more tired and irritable than I normally am. And it's because I'm missing my workout. So I get that. Doctor Katin Athens on the show this morning on seven hundred WLW got the time change. We lose an hour and now darkness will encompass us and develop us here for the next five months, roughly in Cincinnati, we won't see the sun maybe for a couple of minutes,
I think, in the next five months here too. Some may say the sun was cut out in an extreme some sort of extreme budget cut or something like that, and or maybe the sun was captured and stolen by aliens or we just don't get You will not see the sun for quite some time in Cincinnati that south is Does that effect your sleep then too? I know that sun and sleep generally are at odds with one another, but does it mess with a sleep cycle too?
It absolutely does. Our sleep cycle or circadian rhythms all get off. So I ask people to go to bed that hour earlier. Even though it says, you know, it says four o'clock, it is actually five. So go to bed when you normally go to bed for a while, and then you can increase your bedtime maybe ten minutes each week, but go to bed. Try to maintain those same habits you have and get a lot of sleep.
And yes, the sun, the sun activates trying to think of the name of the organs in the back of your head, and when you're in the sun, they're activated. When you're in the dark, they secrete melatonin. So you want to be in a dark room to sleep, but you want to have had some full spectrum light, whether it be the happy machine or you're light bulb, or for some reason there is some sunshine. Because that balance
is the brain. Now you notice in the winter time, people become less friendly, more irritable, just because we're not moving as much and we're not drinking enough water. I mean, just think about the holidays here. You don't drink all year, and you don't eat much, and suddenly you're drinking like crazy on Thanksgiving. You're eating all kinds of stuff you never eat the rest of the year, and then you feel miserable and you go, why am I feeling so bad?
Yeah?
Yeah, I mean I'm living my life like a medieval king or something. I'm eating literally just eating giant geese neck and the drumsticks, and I'm drinking wine and meat, and I'm just having a black asked. But then you feel like crap after. It's kind of like when you eat all the Halloween candy, the same.
Thing, right, right, So don't I tell people don't use moderation.
Yeah, but that's no fun. That's no fun though, It's it's uh. I. I I'm the other extreme though. I believe in everything in its excess. I think if you I think it'll balance, it balances. I'll work out for three straight days and I'm gonna eat for nine straight days.
What about that?
All? What most people do you're right in the groove. Oh I worked out? Why am I gaining weight? When did you work out last week?
Oh?
Okay, Well, I don't.
Want to rush into anything. I could strain something.
That's true. That's true.
I don't want to I don't want to jump in this exercise thing. You know, Well, at the time change here and losing an hour sleep. It's also to trying to get your body set because uh, you know the week when they tell you the clock changes, and then it take a week to get your body right again. Is it better? Is it kind of like jet legs? Should you just go to bed at the same time?
Or yes, go to bed at the same time. We actually gain an hour, but the hour we gain is darkness. So go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time, and then slowly work into the new time zone. You know, if you can go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time. Drink your water. Now, if you want to know how much water you should add, take your body weight. Say you weigh one fifty, divide it in half. That's seventy
five and those are ounces. You need seventy five ounces of water a day, which is huge it's more than half a gallon.
Yeah, I think that's something you sip on a little bit of water all day. Go I had like two bottles of water. That's not it's not from it. And then if you're active, you need even more water.
For that matter, if you're active, you need more water. And so the brain doesn't function without water. It doesn't function. Functions on glucose, water and amino acids. And most of us don't get enough amino acids because we're dieting or we're eating some kind of green and we're not looking at the fact. We need a variety of amino acids for the brain to function properly. But we also need each other. We need human interaction face to face for
the brain and the neural pathways to function properly. I recommend, if you do nothing else, go to the market or the hardware store or the Walmart, whatever, and start saying hello to people, Hello, how are you good morning?
What if you just hate people? Is there no hope for you? Is it terminal? What's going on there? Doctor?
Oh, it could be no.
The reels, I don't go it's because people piss me off.
Okay, well, well that's another story.
Just too many idiots in the world. I think people are listening to the going right slowan. There's too many idiots in the world, and that's why I tend to just stay home and eat and be mindless of myself. All right, we have do you think as a doctor and you studied this stuff again on the show this morning. It's doctor Catherine Athens, and she is an expert in the area of sleep. And we've got one in five
Americans experiencing winter blues, according to the Cleveland Clinic. And they would know because there's no more depressing place in the world in Cleveland. So the Cleveland Clinic people, I would agree with them, and maybe even two and five at this point too. But she's a clinical and health psychologist and she's on the show talking about the time change here and what that means for you, how to combat with happy lights and making sure you're getting hydrated
well enough and all that. Should we get away with daylight savings time in the clock four o'clock back?
Nonsense, you bet you we should. And in California we voted I think six years ago to do away with that, but we still have to do it. Someone isn't listening to the people over here.
Well we have that problem here too. So it's not just Ohio, it's also California.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, so big what is here?
But yes, time change the least of those problems you got over there, that's for dam I'm sure. So uh yeah, it seems to me. I just keep one steady, constant time and we're good there this, you know, jumping back and forth every six months. So really, you know, I could see back in the day where you needed natural daylight in order to get stuff done. But we have electricity now, we've had electricity at least I think for the last three or four years.
I believe, well we do. But you know, the charcoal lobby wanted this daylight savings time because they found out that was another hour or so of sunlight. They make more money, the charcoal lobby. The charcoal lobby, no idea, blame them for this.
Good lord, there's a big big charcoals behind all this big kings. Yeah, yeah, there's a lobby for any you've got politicians, you'll have a you'll have a lobby.
There's no doubt about it.
So doctor Catherine Athnes Athens at H A. N. S. And thanks again for the time. And she has written of several books as a matter of fact, the latest call it The Heart Brain. And doctor Catherine Athens, thanks for coming on the show.
It's my pleasure. And please everyone drink your water, don't don't push yourself. Everybody's going through this miserable time change together, so please just take your time and work yourself into it, and then a few weeks you'll be you'll.
Be better, hopefully.
But well, let's not get get out your happy machine, right.
Well, the good news is we have cheap flights to Florida.
If all else fails, get on a Legian or Delta or whatever and get the hell out of town for a few days.
That always helps. To doctor Catherine all the best.
Thanks the YouTube. Bye bye.
Now today is the day because Sunday. Okay, time change.
It's Sunday.
You're watching football, the big deal. Monday rolls aren't yesterday. And now it's starting to affect you a little bit. Okay, sun's coming up in the morning or and when I get home, it's getting dark and your mind is preparing for sure. In addition to that, today is election day. Election day. If you're in OHI make sure, you take that id with you're gonna need it if you are going to vote, and of course that pulls open. We'll
get a full update on what's happening there. We'll also chat with the council candidate if you haven't voted yet. Anthony Weiner running for council, one of the what twenty nine people running for councils some along those lines, twenty six people. It's a lot, let's put it that way, a boatload of folks. Why should you vote for him? And what he sees from an outsider's perspective, what's going on in is Mayol race? Very interesting. We'll get to that just ahead here slowly seven hundred WLW