Trouble getting out of bed? Signs the ‘winter blues' may be something more serious
Winter is here. As the days grow shorter and the skies turn darker, you might start to feel a bit 'off'. You may notice a dip in your mood or energy levels. Maybe you're less motivated to do things you previously enjoyed in the warmer months.
The 'winter blues' can feel like an inevitable part of life. You might feel sluggish or less social, but you can still get on with your day.
However, if your winter blues are making everyday life difficult and interfering with your work and relationships, it could be the sign of something more serious.
Seasonal affective disorder is more than a seasonal slump – it's a recognised psychiatric condition. Here's what to look for and how to get help.
What is seasonal affective disorder?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders officially recognises seasonal affective disorder as a recurrent major depressive disorder 'with seasonal pattern'.
In other words, the condition shares many symptoms with major depressive disorder, but it also follows a seasonal rhythm. While this might be most common in winter, the disorder can also occur in summer.
Symptoms include:
persistent low mood or feelings of sadness
loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
low energy and fatigue, even after lots of sleep
changes in appetite
weight gain or weight loss
difficulty concentrating
sleeping more or less than usual
feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness
in some cases, thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
Research suggests seasonal affective disorder affects up to 10% of the global population.
Although it can affect anyone, it is more common in women, people aged between 18 and 30 years, and those living far from the equator, where winter daylight hours are especially limited.
What causes it?
Unfortunately, the exact cause of seasonal affective disorder is still poorly understood.
Some theories propose it is primarily caused by a lack of light in the environment, although we are not exactly sure how this leads to depression.
As sunlight is responsible for the production of vitamin D, some have suggested a lack of vitamin D is what causes depression. However, the evidence for such a link is inconclusive.
Others suggest a lack of light in winter delays the circadian rhythms which regulate our sleep/wake cycle. Poor sleep is related to many mental health difficulties, including depression.
Seasonal affective disorder can be treated
Fortunately, there are several evidence-based treatments for seasonal affective disorder. Relief may be found through a combination of approaches.
Bright light therapy is usually the first treatment recommended for seasonal affective disorder. It involves sitting near a specially designed lightbox (with a strength of 10,000 lux) for about 20 to 30 minutes a day to mimic natural sunlight and help regulate the body's internal clock.
Cognitive behavioural therapy aims to help people develop some flexibility around the negative thoughts that might maintain seasonal affective disorder symptoms (for example, 'I am worthless because I never get up to anything meaningful in winter').
Lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, time spent outdoors (even on gloomy days), a balanced diet, and good sleep hygiene can all support recovery.
Antidepressants – especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – may be prescribed when symptoms are moderate to severe, or when other treatments have not worked.
What else helps?
Even those without seasonal affective disorder might need to fight the winter blues. So, what works?
Prioritise social connection
Schedule regular, achievable and pleasant activities with friends, such as trivia at the pub or a brisk walk.
Reframe winter
Rather than dreading the cold, see if you can embrace what is special about this time of year. The mindset of ' hygge ' (a Danish and Norwegian term for cosiness and contentment) may help.
Let winter be your excuse for snuggling on your couch with a thick blanket and hot chocolate while catching up on books and TV shows. Or see if there are any winter-specific activities (such as night markets) where you live.
Maximise daylight
Taking a walk during lunchtime when the sun is out, even briefly, can make a difference.
The bottom line
If your 'winter blues' last more than two weeks, start interfering with your daily life or feel overwhelming, then it might be time to seek professional help.
Speaking to your GP or mental health professional can help you get support early and prevent symptoms getting worse. DM
This story first appeared on The Conversation. Kelvin (Shiu Fung) Wong is a senior lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the Swinburne University of Technology.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
15 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Farmers in the war against fly-tipping: ‘We're the victims yet we're being made to pay'
A discarded cistern marks the entrance to a field in St Albans – a fitting prelude to the unwitting dumping ground beyond. Mounds of mattresses, sofas and pallets lie abandoned; an Amazon delivery bag, a doll's house and a skateboard are scattered across what's estimated to be 200 tons of waste, strewn across land intended to nourish wild birds and insects. Though he had nothing to do with its arrival, the farmer – 80, and recently widowed – is now responsible for clearing up the £40,000 mess dumped on his doorstep. This site in Hertfordshire is one of many making life even more difficult for struggling farmers. As custodians of the land, they are legally responsible for clearing the waste left on it – often at a personal cost of tens of thousands of pounds. 'It's an utter injustice,' says sixth-generation farmer Will Dickinson, surveying the grim scene around us on his 700-acre farm. 'The liability's on [the farmer], which is hideously unfair.' The law, he adds, seems to say: 'You're the victim of a crime – and now we're going to make you pay for it. And if you don't, we'll criminalise you too.' His own livery backs onto the field where we meet. A few times a week, he says, local farmers call to say they have become the latest target. According to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), there were 1.5 million fly-tipping incidents in the countryside between 2023 and 2024 – a scourge that affects two thirds of farmers, according to the National Farmers' Union (NFU). Perhaps inevitably, Dickinson, 64, has also been a victim – once discovering five acres of cropland strewn with the contents of eight tipper trucks, including a bathroom suite and garden waste. Unsure whether the load contained asbestos or glass, he was forced to scrap the entire crop. Nothing he had planted could be harvested, dealing a further blow to food security and his seasonal earnings – all while facing an inordinate clean-up job. Across farms in Britain, similar stories abound. In March, Eevey Hunter, an arable farmer in Hertfordshire, spent £6,000 clearing rubbish dumped in her fields over what she believes was a matter of weeks, with the perpetrators 'effectively using it as a free tip'. Dickinson suspects that most perpetrators are 'white van men' or families who can't be bothered to go to the tip themselves. 'But this is something else,' he says of the disaster left on his elderly neighbour's land. (His terrier, who he tries to coax out of the car, wisely refuses.) 'This must be organised criminality. It's quite staggering how much waste [there is].' Chris Traill, the strategic director for community at St Albans City and District Council, describes the incident as 'a well-organised operation, not a random or impulsive act,' adding that it is being linked to eight other large fly-tips across the district. Following investigations by the council's environmental enforcement team, 'two individuals have already been contacted and asked to attend an interview, and more people may also be approached'. Fly-tipping is a criminal offence that can carry a £50,000 fine and, under a Government initiative launched in April, a five-year prison sentence. Yet Dickinson notes that, according to 2020 figures, 95 per cent of those caught and prosecuted received a fine of less than £1,000 (with the number of fixed penalty notices also falling by 5 per cent last year) – 'which is absolute nonsense,' he says. That amount barely covers the cost of hiring an asbestos skip, let alone the much higher recycling and removal fees farmers are left to shoulder. The environmental impact of unfiltered dumping can be severe too, contaminating water and soil and destroying wildlife and their habitats. 'I get disheartened every day,' Dickinson says of what's happening to Britain's farmland, citing one case where mountains of rubbish – later found to contain asbestos and human waste – were dumped amid the bluebells in another neighbour's ancient woodland. (The landowner was quoted £100,000 for its removal; the damage 'still sits in among the trees now'.) He's well aware that 'if you're going to fly-tip, you don't care about the environment, you just want to get rid of [the rubbish] and make a few quid' – but the impact is proving both ecologically and financially devastating for those left to clean up. Hertfordshire's police and crime commissioner last year launched a 'fly-tipping fund', which landowners can apply for if they have been targeted. Yet between 2024 and 2025, just seven applications were successful, with a total of £11,173 paid out. The Government maintains it is taking the issue seriously, with a Defra spokesperson stating: 'Waste criminals and fly-tippers who blight our villages and undermine our hard-working farmers have gone unpunished for too long. This Government is cracking down on cowboy waste operators, including seizing and crushing fly-tippers' vans to clean up Britain's rural areas and support our crucial farming sector.' In March, £800,000 in funding was earmarked for the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit – a fraction of the £44.1 million cost of rural crime last year. Is enough being done to change the current punitive fate of battle-weary British farmers? 'Sadly no, not at all,' says Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, where the most recent large-scale incident took place. 'There just seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the difficulty that a lot of our farmers have,' she says, with ministerial promises rarely translating into action. 'This is a criminal issue; this is not just something which is small fry anymore, and so that's why the Government should be tackling it head on.' Collins's party is pushing for more reinforcements, such as dedicated teams within police forces – currently, just 0.4 per cent of officers focus on countryside offences. Without that support, farmers remain single-handedly responsible for deterring criminals. For some, that means installing CCTV, though this often proves ineffective: Dickinson says he has images of one intruder blasting his camera with a BB gun. Heavy blockades offer little protection either; his neighbour's farm had a large concrete block moved by intruders and a gate mangled. 'The reality is that when you're in the countryside, there aren't that many cameras around, and you can find secluded spots – hidden in trees, down back lanes, that nobody really knows about,' says Rachel Hallos, the vice-president of the NFU, on how easily fly-tippers are able to blight the countryside. 'It seems that once somebody's found a place, it keeps on being tipped there again and again and again.' These incessant attacks – and the lack of recourse afterwards – are yet another blow to farmers, who have already been saddled with inheritance tax changes on land worth more than £1 million (previously exempt) and Government cuts to subsidies. In March, applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, launched in 2022 to reward eco-friendly farming practices supporting food production and the environment, were also closed. This has left Dickinson in the same position as many of his peers: caught between continuing to work to stave off economic turmoil or passing his farm to the next generation much sooner to avoid a multimillion-pound tax bill. He describes the situation as 'hideous; absolutely hideous. Mental stress in farming is a pretty serious thing these days'. (An NFU report found that 96 per cent of those surveyed felt rural crime was negatively affecting farmers' mental wellbeing.) 'A friend of mine's father committed suicide; another neighbour committed suicide back in the spring. It's a dodgy old job.' Dickinson maintains that of all the challenges farmers face today, fly-tipping is one that surely can be cracked. 'If you lose hope, you give up. I don't want to give up.' Still, he says, 'it's been a long, long war' – and there's no sign of it ending yet.
NBC Sports
15 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Detroit Red Wings legend and Hockey Hall of Famer Alex Delvecchio dies at 93
DETROIT — Alex Delvecchio, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup three times in the 1950s, has died. He was 93. Delvecchio died at his home in Rochester, Michigan, according to a Red Wings spokesperson. A cause of death was not immediately available, though his family said in a statement released by the team that Delvecchio died peacefully Tuesday surrounded by loved ones. 'Alex was more than a hockey icon. He was a devoted husband, loving father, great grandfather, cherished friend and respected teammate to so many,' the family said. 'While the world knew him as an incredible hockey player with numerous accomplishments on the ice, we knew him as someone whose humility, strength, competitiveness, kindness and heart were even greater than his knew achievements.' Delvecchio spent his entire NHL career with the Red Wings from 1951-73, recording 1,325 points in 1,671 regular-season and playoff games. Playing alongside 'Mr. Hockey' Gordie Howe, he was part of championship teams in 1952, '54 and '55, won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct three times and was a two-time All-Star. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977, Delvecchio decades later was named one of the 100 greatest players in league history. During the '70s he had multiple stints as Detroit's general manager, head coach or both. Delvecchio remains third in franchise history in games played behind Howe and Nicklas Lidstrom. His No. 10 hangs from the rafters as one of the storied organization's retired numbers. 'Few athletes in any sport ever have been as synonymous with one franchise as Alex Delvecchio was with the Detroit Red Wings,' NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. 'Delvecchio's work as the center on the famed 'Production Line' with wingers Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay was pivotal to the Wings' title runs in 1952, 1954 and 1955, and he served as team captain for 12 years. The National Hockey League mourns the passing of this true legend of the game.'
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
LeBron James And Austin Reaves Reportedly Don't Like Playing With Luka Doncic
LeBron James And Austin Reaves Reportedly Don't Like Playing With Luka Doncic originally appeared on Fadeaway World. Luka Doncic has gelled well on the court with LeBron James and Austin Reaves during their short time as teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, but NBA insider John Gambadoro claims all is not well. On the latest episode of the Burns and Gambo Show, Gambadoro stated that James and Reaves do not like playing with Doncic. "LeBron does not like playing with Luka," Gambadoro said. "Reaves does not like playing with Luka. Reaves does not like getting the ball with two seconds left on the shot clock. LeBron is not fond of playing with Luka. The Lakers are going to turn their attention to build around Luka, not LeBron. "So, this is Luka's team now," Gambadoro added. "... He'll probably come back, but I wouldn't say it's a guaranteed no-brainer LeBron comes back to the Lakers because there are guys that don't like playing with Luka." Gambadoro also wondered if James is struggling to handle the fact that a teammate of his is now the top dog for the first time in his career. All of this is quite interesting considering we haven't heard anything prior to this about any sort of discontent between them. James has spoken glowingly of Doncic's game and has never really thrown shade at his teammate at any point. The 40-year-old has done that to others in the past, but not to him. As for Reaves, a deeper look at his numbers suggests he should have liked playing with Doncic. In the games he played without the Slovenian this past season, he averaged 19.8 points, 6.3 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game while shooting 45% from the field and 36.2% from beyond the arc. When Doncic was playing alongside him, Reaves averaged 21.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. He was more efficient, too, shooting 47.9% from the field and 40.2% from beyond the arc. There were some concerns that Doncic's arrival might hurt Reaves on offense, but that hasn't been the case. The five-time All-Star has instead made life easier on the court for Reaves, as evidenced by those numbers. The only problem when it comes to these two playing together is that they're both not great defenders. The Minnesota Timberwolves repeatedly hunted them in the first round of the playoffs, and that contributed to the Lakers getting eliminated in five games. Reaves, however, dismissed those defensive concerns regarding himself and Doncic. He thinks the two of them, along with James, will create chaos next season. It's unclear if these three will be playing together in 2025-26, though. At first, there was talk about Reaves being traded this offseason as he could potentially hit free agency in 2026. It is expected that he will ask for a deal worth nearly $30 million per year, and that would be a significant financial commitment. That trade talk has died down a bit now, though, and James is now the one potentially headed to the exit door. NBA insider Shams Charania stated that he could leave the Lakers if he doesn't think they can compete for a title. Doncic looks to be the only one guaranteed to be with the Lakers long-term. The 26-year-old is widely expected to sign an extension in August, and the Lakers are making all their moves now with him in story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jul 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
