600 Wintering Well boxes to reach UK libraries

Six hundred Wintering Well boxes are to be shared through 16 public library services across the UK from October 26, expanding a scheme developed to help people manage seasonal affective disorder and winter wellbeing. The boxes will be available in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The lending scheme began in East Dunbartonshire in 2024 and later expanded to Glasgow and Orkney. Its project announcement reports 1,000 loans across those three areas since the scheme began. Each box contains a therapeutic light lamp designed to mimic outdoor sunlight, a guidebook with suggested indoor and outdoor activities, and access to a free online course. Researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh developed the boxes with input from people who experience symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. The project received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. In Scotland, the boxes are available through library services in Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and Orkney, as well as East Renfrewshire, which has joined the scheme. Edinburgh Library Service is offering them at Wester Hailes, Morningside and Muirhouse libraries. In England, participating...