Counsellor advises exercise, good sleep habits to get through P.E.I. wet, dark November

The damp, dreary weather on Prince Edward Island over the past few weeks has been hard on some Islanders, both physically and mentally.

"Looking at data out of Charlottetown Airport, P.E.I.'s last meaningfully sunny day was back on Sunday, November 10," says CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland.

This November has been warmer than normal so far and slightly wetter, Scotland said, noting that skies have been mainly cloudy to overcast over the last few weeks. 

Cloudy skies on P.E.I. in November are the norm, he pointed out, with the sky being mainly cloudy to overcast 71 per cent of the time.

"I think it definitely does us good to get outside as much as we can, so the bad weather is certainly hard on that," said Rebecca Taylor, who is a nurse.

She said she and her nine-month-old baby Noah have been missing a lot of their daily walks, so she was happy to be able to get out Thursday during a break in the drizzle.  

Taylor moved to P.E.I. from Newfoundland a few years ago and says Prince Edward Island's weather the past few weeks is all too familiar. 

"It reminds me a lot of living in St. John's again. We thought we kind of escaped that," Taylor lamented. 

Charlottetown counselling therapist Dianne Birt said it's usually still September when her clients begin commenting about the effect of darker, shorter autumn days on their mental health.

She said people can be affected by a lack of sunlight, even if they don't have a diagnosis of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or major depressive disorder, because sunlight provides people with vitamin D. 

"Vitamin D is important not only for the immune system but also contributes in the development and physiological processes in the body that make serotonin, which… is one of the mood-enhancing neurotransmitters," Birt said. 

A lack of sunlight can also affect sleep, Birt noted. It interferes with the body's natural circadian rhythm or 24-hour clock, and many of her clients complain of disrupted sleep this time of year. 

"A client won't leave my office without a prescription for exercise, for one, and try to get more rest. [It's] important to be mindful of nutrition, and just being outside" she said. "Nature is therapeutic; movement is medicine."

"It really comes down to being mindful of self-care and just really committing to that, because it goes a long way in terms of stress management and prevention of mental health issues."