Dark days: why autumn weighs on your mood, and what helps
Every year around October I see it come back in the consulting room. People who were doing fine in summer become slower, sleep longer, crave sweets and bread, and say things like 'I don't know what it is, but everything takes more effort.' Often they are ashamed of it, as if it were self-indulgence. It is not. Less daylight has a measurable effect on your body clock, your energy and your mood. In this article I explain what happens, how to tell an ordinary autumn slump from seasonal depression, and what the research says actually helps.
What less light does to you
In the Netherlands we go from more than sixteen hours of daylight in June to under eight in December. That difference is enormous, and your body notices. Light entering through your eyes drives your body clock: it determines when you wake, when you have energy and when your body prepares for the night. With less light, that clock becomes flatter and later.
You probably recognise the result: harder to get up while it is still dark, a dip mid-afternoon as the sun is already setting, more need for sleep and for food that gives quick energy. That is not weakness of character but biology. Your body responds to the season the way it has for thousands of years.
For most people it stays there: a somewhat slower, cosier version of themselves. For some, it goes further and the mood really sinks. The difference between those two matters, because it decides whether you can sit it out or need to act.
Autumn slump or seasonal depression?
An autumn slump is what most people feel to some degree: less energy, less motivation, a little gloomier. You still function, still enjoy things, and it improves with a few good habits. Seasonal depression is something else. It is a real depression, with the particular feature that it returns every autumn or winter and lifts again in spring.
Seasonal depression often looks a little different from 'ordinary' depression. Where people with depression often sleep badly and eat little, people with seasonal depression sleep more and eat more, with a strong craving for carbohydrates. They feel leaden, withdraw, and lose interest in everything. Thuisarts.nl has a clear description you can hold your own symptoms against.
The pattern is the key. If you look back and see that for several years running you have sunk around the same time and picked up again in March or April, that is an important signal. Write it down, or ask someone who knows you well. People often only see such a pattern in themselves once someone else names it.
Light is the first medicine
If less light is the problem, more light is the first answer, and that is less obvious than it sounds. Even a grey, overcast day outdoors is many times brighter than a lit room indoors. Half an hour outside in the morning, even without sun, does more for your clock than all the lamps in the house together. Go outside before you start your day, or plan your walk in the morning instead of the evening.
For people with genuine seasonal depression there is light therapy: half an hour a day in front of a special 10,000-lux lamp, usually in the morning. It sounds like a gimmick, but it is well researched. A review by Golden and colleagues, pooling the available studies, found an effect comparable to what is seen with antidepressants. It often works within one to two weeks.
Light therapy is not for everyone and not without caveats: with some eye conditions, certain medicines and bipolar disorder you need to be careful. So talk to your GP first, who can advise on a lamp or refer you. Do not start on your own with an internet lamp whose strength you do not know.
Keep the day in its place
When the light goes, your day starts to drift: later to bed, later up, curtains closed longer, evenings longer on the sofa. Each of these on its own is harmless, but together they reinforce exactly the problem. You get even less light, move even less, and your clock shifts further. The slump becomes a spiral.
The antidote is duller than you would like: a fixed time to get up, also at the weekend, and also after a bad night. Curtains open straight away. Breakfast by the window or outside. Movement early in the day. And in the evening, dim the lights and put the screens away in time, so your body knows the night is coming. It is no miracle cure, but it keeps a floor under your day.
Do you notice you already know this and still cannot manage it? That is information. It is often the first sign that the slump is more than a slump, and that you may ask for help rather than keep cheering yourself on.
When winter here is different from home
For many of our clients, the Dutch winter is not just a season but a culture shock that returns every year. Anyone who grew up with long, light days and a life lived outdoors and in the street often experiences the dark months here as a kind of confinement. It is not only the light that is missing, but the rhythm of dropping by, eating outside, running into people. Everyone is indoors, behind closed doors.
Add to that that family and community may be far away, and that holidays or Ramadan can fall in the dark months, making the absence sharper still. In many families there is also little language for these complaints. 'You just have to keep going' is well meant, but does not help when your body is literally reacting to a lack of light.
A practical point that is often forgotten: people with darker skin make almost no vitamin D in the Dutch winter, because the sun is too weak. You can read more about that in our article on eating in autumn. And most importantly: you need not be ashamed that this climate is hard on you. It is one of the most common things we hear in autumn, precisely from people who grew up somewhere else.
When is it more than the dark days?
A few gloomy, sluggish weeks in November belong to the season and usually pass by themselves. If it lingers for more than two weeks, if you notice it affecting your work, your family or your self-care, or if you recognise the pattern from earlier years, it is wise to do something about it. The earlier you start, the shorter the winter.
Watch especially for these signs: hardly enjoying anything any more, withdrawing from people, sleeping much more and still being tired, strongly changed appetite, and thoughts that it all need not go on. With the last one, do not wait: call your GP or the out-of-hours GP service, or 113 Suicide Prevention on 0800-0113.
Seasonal depression is very treatable. Light therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy aimed specifically at the season, and medication where needed work well for most people, certainly when caught early. Not sure whether your symptoms fit with us? Feel free to get in touch, and we will think along with you.
Sources
- Thuisarts.nl — winterdepressie
- Golden e.a. (2005), The efficacy of light therapy in the treatment of mood disorders — American Journal of Psychiatry (PubMed)
- Trimbos-instituut — kennis over geestelijke gezondheid
This article is informative and does not replace personal advice from a care provider. In doubt, or do you have questions about your own situation? Feel free to contact us.
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