The science of winter depression with Prof. Debra Skene – leading chronobiologist

Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health. Winter is coming. Temperatures are dropping, clouds are descending, and the clocks are changing. Many of you might be worrying that the winter blues are on their way. But perhaps the icy grip of old man winter isn't inevitable. Perhaps we can work with our natural biological rhythms to fend off this blue phase. Well, today we're joined by professor Deborah Skeen, section leader chronobiology at the University of Surrey and a global authority on circadian rhythms. With over a 190 research publications, she spent twenty five years studying how light and timing affect our sleep, mood and metabolic health. After listening to this episode, you'll be armed with solid advice that'll help you weather winter with a smile, maintaining good health and good mood until the warmth returns. Deborah, thank you so much for joining me today. Pleasure. Hello. So we have a tradition here at ZOE where we always start with a quick fire round of questions from our listeners, and we have some very strict rules. We ask you to say yes or no, or if you have to, a one sentence answer. You willing to give it a go? Sure. Can messing with your body clock lead to weight gain? Yes. Does when you eat influence your circadian rhythms? Yes. We believe that as well, that I think timing of meals, very important. Can the color of light influence our sleep wake cycle? Indeed. Yes. Some colors are more effective than others. Can light boxes help people keep their circadian rhythms on track? I think so as well. What's the most surprising thing that you've learned about circadian rhythms in your twenty five years of research? Probably that dim light has an effect. I always thought it was just bright light, daylight having an effect on your body clocks, but even dim light has an effect on the clock. So this is a big topic. So to kick things off, let's go back right to basics. What are circadian rhythms, and why do they matter for health? It's more what are biological clocks, and we have them all over our body. And it's critical that these clocks are synchronized with our life on Earth. For us, as people living on Earth, we've got this critical light dark cycle, you know, that happens every twenty four hours because of the Earth's rotation. What we need to do to stay in synchrony with this is that we have these biological clocks that are able to respond to the like dark cycle. And in unison, together, would give you good health. Can you help me tell a bit more what a biological clock is that's in me? Well, the first one that was discovered, the sort of master clock, so to speak, is in the hypothalamus, so within your brain. And it has a direct pathway from that clock in your …