Is SAD a real condition? SAD is not without its skeptics.

One study published in 2008 looked at rates of

depression among populations in northern Norway, where there’s no sunlight at all for two months of
every winter, and found no seasonal increase. Another study published in 2016 looked at a U.S. survey
of just over 30,000 people. When asked to answer questions related to depression, there was no
discernible spike related to season or latitude.

Steven Lobello, a psychologist at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, isn’t convinced SAD
qualifies as a diagnosable mental disorder. He thinks previous studies done to measure rates of SAD
have been too suggestive. Rather than calling people during the winter and asking them if they feel
depressed, studies have asked people if they have ever felt depressed during winter—which many
people believe they do. “If you ask questions of people in a way that allows them to know the nature of
what you’re getting at, then I don't think you’re doing anything more than measuring that belief,”
Lobello says. However, Rohan says these studies may not detect SAD because it’s relatively rare,
representing about 10 percent of those diagnosed with clinical depression. “It’s like looking for a needle
in a haystack and not finding needles and determining they don’t exist,” she says.