For some, the winter months can mean falling colored leaves, streets lined with snow, holidays, and cozy nights at home, but along with these joyful feelings associated with this time of year, there comes another side of winter. Beginning in the fall months and then continuing throughout the winter months following, the days start to become shorter, colder, and darker, allowing less time for evening activities and limiting the time spent outside. If you are an individual who feels different from November through March, you’re not alone. Although winter is often associated with many good feelings, the lack of warmth and light can have a strong mental effect that can give people a sense of sadness or loneliness.

High school is a time when emotions seem to be stronger than ever, and the students are already undergoing stress from classes, sports, and even jobs for some. Many respond to the effects of the change in daylight patterns by simply feeling tired, but many feel a significant mood change as well. When asked how he feels his mood is affected by the winter months, Max Potashnick (12) responded, “I feel good in November and December because I like the holiday season, but I feel a little stressed during January through March.” He then goes on to state that the weather itself, specifically the rain, isn’t the factor that affects his mood. This is the case with many others who feel that wintertime generally changes their mood and is often linked with stress.

Similarly, Cooper Giovanini (10) states, “Due to the sun going down earlier, I feel that I am more tired and find less time for things.” Having less opportunity for outside activities due to the colder weather and the shorter daylight has a major effect on many who enjoy the outdoors or those who prefer warmer weather. On the contrary, James Burleigh (9) is one student who feels less affected by winter weather than others, simply putting, “Sometimes I feel more tired, but overall not too much.” The mental health consequences may not connect with everyone affected by the winter months, but disrupted sleep patterns are prevalent.

Believe it or not, the lack of sun does trigger a hormonal change that leads to differing emotions. Melatonin, also known as the “hormone of darkness,” is the hormone that causes you to feel tired at night or simply when you turn off the lights and is released in response to darkness. If your natural light and dark cycle is disrupted, such as by a shift in sunlight hours during the day from clouds or the shorter daylight period in winter, the melatonin production is heavily impacted, and it can be difficult to maintain a normal sleep-wake cycle. The sleep-wake cycle is the body’s rhythm that causes you to crave sleep or feel drowsy after a certain amount of time to ensure that the body gets enough rest. Melatonin is the key factor in regulating a person’s sleep-wake cycle, and just as sleeping with the lights on affects the melatonin production and sleep-wake cycle, darker days in winter affect your ability to fall asleep. Another contributing factor could be that fewer hours of daylight reduce your opportunities to get vitamin D from sunlight, which can help fuel serotonin activity. A lack of vitamin D also keeps your body from properly absorbing calcium, which leads to a higher chance of bone and muscle weakness. Higher levels of melatonin or lower levels of serotonin are both contributing factors to feelings of tiredness, laziness, lack of focus, and potentially mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

A more severe but less common reaction to winter’s characteristics occurs in people with SAD. SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a form of depression that occurs due to the impact on the levels of melatonin and serotonin in the body when there is less sunlight. Research by Johns Hopkins Medicine lists some symptoms of SAD, which, similar to the previous list, are excessive tiredness, loss of interest in regular activities, social withdrawal, trouble thinking clearly, increased appetite, decreased ability to focus, and anxiety. SAD is not the same as sadness, and while sadness has a rational cause, SAD is caused by an uncontrollable event without a link to a logical reason that sadness would have. Many who struggle with SAD don’t know that they do, and similarly to people who struggle with depression, they often search for a rational reason that they feel the way they do. The important takeaway is that although only a small percentage of people are affected by SAD, a major portion of the world is affected by the change in atmosphere.

Although diagnosed mental health issues have been addressed frequently in recent years, not much discussion about affected mental health during the winter months has been discussed. These effects on mental health are a real issue, whether it is SAD or any form of seasonal mood changes, and just because it seems that everyone else feels this way doesn’t mean it should be normal. Mental health is more important than many of us make it out to be, and although sharing about your mental health can be scary, change can’t happen if nobody speaks up.