I love gadgets that make us happy. Hello Kitty vibrators. Snow globes. Lamps. As in, these days, there really is a surefire way to kick Seasonal Affective Disorder. So light up!

SAD, in which winter's lack of sunlight leads to depression, affects nearly 10 percent of the people of New Hampshire, and I don't know how many of my friends. Come Winter Solstice (in a just few days now), some go into virtual hibernation. Lots of chocolate, lots of sleeping, watching TV, feeling low, making plans they can't keep. Some try to wear yellow as much as they can. Some walk on the sunny side of the street. Some drink so much coffee they chitter and chatter incomprehensibly.

The one person I know who's really licked SAD found his solution in a lamp. It's from Full Spectrum Solutions: a "dawn simulator," as mentioned in today's New York Times. At about 6 a.m. the lamps starts a long "sunrise," getting brighter and brighter until the room is blazingly bright (The lamp is adjustable: You can set it as bright as you want). Combined with his eight-stereo system blasting Mozart at top volume, my pal practically glows as he skips out of his apartment.

He also has a light-therapy lamp, called a BlueMax, set up at his desk at work. The lamp has the fringe benefit of keeping most people at a distance. ("Um, hey man, that's like, mega-bright, dude," his least favorite office mate apparently told him. His retort: "I need it. It's my therapy.")

He can also set up his home rig to mimic a long, luxurious evening sunset, which had another benefit: Single for years, he's now found his soul mate, another SAD sufferer. On their first date, she laughed for the first time in weeks after he set up the sunset for their take-out Chinese feast. For Christmas they're making their first purchase as a couple: a new sunrise system. 

Jana Martin does not have seasonal affective disorder, at least not right this second.