Nov. 1, 2006
 
COMMENTARY: Hello, Darkness, My Old Enemy
 
By Dan Vierra
Sacramento Bee
 
Autumn's curtain of darkness is dropping earlier, before some day-shift folks buckle up for the evening commute.
 
Basically, there's daylight while you're pouring the Cheerios and darkness as the Hamburger Helper simmers -- courtesy of the first week of the seasonal "fall back" after daylight-saving time ends.
 
"People just hate it getting dark an hour earlier," says Neal Owens, president and founder of The SunBox Co. "Everybody gets a little grumpier, and sleep patterns are affected."
 
Owens' Maryland-based company manufactures light boxes to treat people diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder. SAD is a type of winter depression thought to be caused by limited exposure to sunlight. Some believe that sitting in front of these light boxes lifts the spirits.
 
Sunlight is a human need. While artificial light helps, humans didn't evolve soaking up light from incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubing.
 
For the next two months, natural light will recede like Bruce Willis' hairline. We'll lose a few minutes of light a day until Dec. 21, the winter solstice and the longest night of the year.
 
After the winter solstice, it's daylight's turn to pump up the rays each day.
 
Next year, we'll all have an extra month of daylight-saving time, when it will begin March 11 and end Nov. 4. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, in part, set the new dates to protect trick-or-treaters with more light and hopes of fewer traffic accidents.
 
For now, darkness rules. We'll tend to eat more and sleep more. Darkness stirs sleep disorders and SAD symptoms such as irritability, increased sleep and appetite, weight gain and difficulties dealing with people.
 
SAD affects only 4 to 6 percent of the public and isn't to be confused with the more prevalent holiday blues, described by the Cleveland Clinic as "related to psychosocial factors," including increased family obligations, isolation and decreased exercise.
 
The daylight-saving time changes occur every year, but it doesn't seem to get any easier to make the transition.
 
"For a lot of people, daylight-saving time is a bit of an annoyance," says Stanley Coren, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. "In our digital world, there seems to be nothing that doesn't have a digital clock that will need resetting. One of my children gave me a ballpoint pen with a digital clock."
 
In the meantime, if you need to burrow, here are some dark movies for dark times:
 
-- "Sin City" (2005) -- A violent film noir with a graphic-novel look. Even Jessica Alba casts a shadow.
 
-- "11:14" (2003) -- That would be 11:14 p.m., when all hell breaks loose. -- "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005) -- It was a dark and stormy New Year's Eve when the lead began to fly.
 
-- "Army of Darkness" (1992) -- Dead things, necromancy and evildoers confront and confound Bruce Campbell.
 
-- "Collateral" (2004) -- Tom Cruise, a gray-haired hit man, hops a cab to make the midnight rounds.
 
Contact Dan Vierria at dvierria@sacbee.com
 
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.