August has always affected me differently than it seems to affect most people.

While others lament the shortening days and approaching end of summer, I begin to feel a subtle sense of relief. The oppressive heat and humidity usually begin to loosen their grip, darkness comes a little earlier, and the natural world starts offering hints of the season to come.

Henry David Thoreau captured this peculiar moment perfectly when he observed, “How early in the year it begins to be late!” By August, summer is still very much with us, yet almost everywhere I look and listen, something is quietly announcing that fall is on the doorstep. Rather than making me melancholy, those changes tend to lift my spirits.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve experienced a slight lowering of my mood during the height of summer. I’ve sometimes wondered whether my summer doldrums are a mild echo of summer-pattern Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I certainly wouldn’t describe what I experience as a clinical disorder — a bit of a slump is probably closer to what I feel — but summer SAD is a recognized condition. Although much less common than its winter counterpart, it can involve low mood, irritability, anxiety, poor sleep, reduced appetite and diminished energy or enthusiasm.

Heat, humidity, long hours of bright sunshine and disrupted sleep may all contribute. More recently, wildfire smoke has added another unwelcome and worrisome dimension to summer. For some people, even the expectation that we should be outside enjoying ourselves and “making the most of summer” can become exhausting rather than enjoyable.

Whatever the explanation for my own summer doldrums, they usually begin to lift as August advances. Cooler nights bring heavy dew, mist over lakes and wetlands, and the........

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