East Dunbartonshire residents can check out a sun ‘top up’ alongside their library books this winter, in a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Scottish researchers and libraries looking to help people struggling with the low mood, isolation and anxiety the winter months bring.

A new initiative will offer 100 ‘Wintering Well’ boxes to people in four local libraries across the region as part of research into the mental and physical effects of long dark winters.

The boxes will include a lamp specially designed to support people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression which becomes more severe during the winter months.

By simulating the sunlight people will be missing this winter, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh hope to help reduce the impact of low mood on people’s daily activities.

Professor Hester Parr, University of Glasgow co-investigator on the Wintering Well project, explained there is often “very limited” social or medical support available to people through the winter, despite more than a million people across the UK experiencing SAD symptoms:

“Our Wintering Well resources are aimed at helping people find novel ways to deal with those feelings through creative projects and finding connection and support with others who struggle with low mood.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with the East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust to make our resources more widely available, and to provide access to SAD lamps.

“We’ll be collecting feedback from participants in this new phase of the study to help us guide the next stage of Living with SAD, which could involve bringing Wintering Well boxes to communities across Scotland.”

Previously, library-goers in East Dumbartonshire could access SAD lamps on library premises, but this new project will for the first time allow people to take the lamps home.

Alison Nolan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Library and Information Council, said the “ground-breaking” initiative marks an exciting development for libraries in Scotland, adding:  

“Not only will the project help boost community wellbeing during the long winter months, it will also support important research into Seasonal Affective Disorder. It highlights the central role of Scottish public libraries in community life.”

The boxes will also include a template for writing a ‘Letter to Winter’, a creative exercise providing an outlet for participants’ feelings about living with low light and low mood, which will form the basis of further research from the team.

Professor Hayden Lorimer, University of Edinburgh co-investigator of Living with SAD said local libraries are the “perfect places” for people to access these boxes:

“They are also warm and welcoming public spaces for meeting up and socialising during the winter months. We’re planning to organise shorts walks nearby to library buildings when borrowers will be able to share their experiences with one another.”

The Wintering Well boxes are available now at William Patrick Library in Kirkintilloch and libraries in Bishopbriggs, Lennoxtown and Milngavie.

The Trust has also committed to transfer boxes to other local libraries on request.

A trial of the project took place in October and the team are hoping to continue the project throughout the winter months and into next year.

One participant, Claire Charlwood, said the resources made her reframe winter and the lamp helped “top up” her sunlight as the days became darker:

“I’ve found the winter months very challenging to deal with in previous years. Darkness when you leave the house in the morning and darkness when you get home can really start to wear on your mental health.

“I was really impressed by the Wintering Well Box. The resources make me think about winter in a different way, like using a mini ‘sky-frame’ to help me notice the sky isn’t just dull, wet and grey. I also think the SAD lamp tops up my levels of sunlight and that helps. In a way, I think the lamp, the book and online course resources give you everything you need to deal with SAD both in body and mind.”

Meanwhile, the libraries will also host mini-exhibitions made up of images of everyday experiences of SAD and ‘reframing’ winter, created by Wintering Well workshop participants.

If the libraries project is judged a success this winter, the researchers hope the boxes will be rolled out to communities across Scotland next winter.

The creation and distribution of the boxes has been funded by a grant from the UK Research and Innovation’s Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration Account, while guides and free course resources are also being delivered through community link workers in 80 NHS GP practices across Glasgow.

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