Fight for light

Telluride Daily Planet, Friday, November 22, 2024

I don’t know the precise science behind the effects of holiday lights on the human brain, but this time of year, I know it’s more than just early Christmas displays that get me veering toward ropes and ropes of tiny bulbs that hold the promise of more sparkles and lumens.

We were not a house decorating family during my youth, neither inside nor out. For us, the same strings of tree lights would come out of a cedar trunk year after year, along with the same ornaments and the same Christmas reel-to-reel tape player carols. Yes, once upon a time, there were reel-to-reel “decks,” which were analog devices used for recording and playing music. Anyway, everything in our holiday was replayed year after year: only the heavy tree tinsel was fresh – that is, until they banned it in 1972 for high lead content.

But I spent hours and hours looking at the tree, feeling the power not so much of nostalgia but of one simple thing I, for one, needed desperately as a teenager in Seattle in winter at a Catholic girls’ school: light!

Much has been said and written about the Christmas holidays, especially, and the double-edged effect holidays have on us humans around the world: sweetness or triggers, dysfunction or balm, commercialism, consumerism, hype or hope. My subject is strictly the lights we see and our ability to reframe triggers into what are now referred to as “glimmers,” benefitting as much as we can from a little more brightness and color when the darkness of dusk just comes too soon.

The basic brain chemistry of adding more light to our day-to-day lives during the winter months has to do with light sparking the brain chemical dopamine, a neurotransmitter and hormone affecting many bodily functions, including movement, mood and motivation. A “feel good” hormone, it is released, in part, as a reward when we feel pleasure. Why is it potentially released with strings of lights? One explanation for this has to do with chromotherapy – color therapy – which is believed to boost energy levels and happiness.

But from a strictly anecdotal point of view, why wouldn’t more soft, glowing light in the dark days of the year affect our overall sense of wellbeing? The darkness of night is only delicious to a point.

For some, Seasonal Affective disorder — a form of depression referred to as SAD — proves just how powerful a lack of light in winter months can be. Now, we have lighting that approximates the light of the sun at sunrise or sunset (full and broad spectrum lighting) that has been found helpful to those affected. For most of us, even a modicum of added light can make a difference.

Extra light can also boost our “feel good” because of what we could call the cozy effect, or cocooning – a selfcare practice involving staying indoors and feeling warm, safe and well. The Danish word for this, popularized in recent years, is “hygge” (pronounced hyoo·guh), and also involves the notion of bringing warmth and welcome to our homes. Warmth is often symbolized and created with light — candles, fires, and even … strings of lights.

In an era of Netflix fireplaces, a reasonable facsimile if one is willing to suspend all expectations of real brightness and warmth, my preference is still for strings of bulbs to shore up our light and hygge needs. The easiest and cheapest way to augment light? Simply fill a large jar with 100 strung mini lights — I like warm LED bulbs – and plug them in wherever light is needed (and even where you didn’t know it was needed): dark corners, kitchen counters, hallways, night stands, stairways, bathrooms.

The idea is to refresh home spaces in winter months and feel… better. For bolder touches, lights can be strung around interior windows and doorways, on stair railings, or even on unsuspecting indoor plants. An additional benefit of using string lights is in curbing the use of overhead lighting at night – which can affect circadian rhythms and lead to interrupted sleep. Jars of lights, especially, are bright but down low enough not to simulate light from the sun, which can confuse the pineal gland where melatonin is produced.

String lights can also create “glimmers,” a now viral word used to indicate nanoseconds of joy that elevate mood such as the smell of a flower, a compliment, a hug, spotting the first star, the initial feel of a hot bath, or freshly laundered sheets. Defined as small internal or external cues that create feelings of safety and happiness, strings of lights fall squarely into this category.

Easy, inexpensive, and delightful, for me, this winter lights hack is a no-brainer — or brain lighter-upper.