{"id":157710,"date":"2026-04-05T10:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157710\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:26:06","slug":"why-seasonal-depression-can-continue-during-early-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157710\/","title":{"rendered":"Why seasonal depression can continue during early spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>As winter transitions into spring, longer days of sunshine and warmer weather can improve one\u2019s mood after a cold winter keeps us inside. However, for some individuals in Philadelphia, this change doesn\u2019t happen right away.\n<\/p>\n<p>Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a type of depression linked to seasonal changes, typically appearing during fall and winter, when daylight hours decrease. Unlike other types of depression, SAD follows a predictable pattern.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has an annual recurrence \u2026 typically fall and winter when the days are shorter,\u201d said Dr. George Brainard, professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University who directs Jefferson\u2019s Light Research program.\n  <\/p>\n<p>But as spring nears, those feelings of depression don\u2019t always vanish.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSymptoms are very high still\u201d throughout March, he said. \u201cThey begin to reduce in April and May.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Why is seasonal affective disorder present in early spring?<\/p>\n<p>The delay results from the body\u2019s reaction to changing light. During the winter months, reduced sunlight can disrupt circadian rhythms, often referred to as the body\u2019s internal clock. Less sunlight can also impact hormones like melatonin and serotonin, which regulate sleep and mood.\n<\/p>\n<p>As daylight increases, those systems take time to adjust. \u201cYou get a bright day, you might get a momentary relief [from] the acute effects of light, but you\u2019re not getting the full relief because you\u2019re not fully in the seasonal change yet,\u201d Brainard said. \u201cYour body takes time to reset and re-adapt to the lengthening days.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>The lag in readjusting is most often felt in early spring, especially as temperatures fluctuate and sunny days give way to cold, gray weather.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21138,69,71,70,4223],"class_list":{"0":"post-157710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-depression","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news","12":"tag-spring"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}