Sundown, You Better Take Care

Daylight savings time affects mood, mental health

According to mental health experts, the winter blues are not a figment of people’s imaginations. As Patrick Peck, mental health therapist with Ozarks Healthcare notes, feeling sluggish and out of sorts after the time change is a legitimate phenomenon for many people, ranging from a couple days of the blahs to a recognized condition commonly known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

“It is actually a multifaceted condition, to be honest,” he said. “Not only are we dealing with time change issues, but we’re also talking about dealing with darkness coming earlier, so essentially we spend a lot less time in daylight which can affect our moods, disrupt sleep, mess with our exercise. I don’t know about you, but when I get home at 5 o’clock and it is dark and cold, I’m not going out for a walk in the park.”

Humans are more than mere creatures of habit, Peck explained, they come standard with a hard-wired internal sleep-wake pattern called the circadian rhythm. This internal clock is influenced by various environmental factors, including light and dark, which trigger certain body systems affecting sleep and wakefulness. Disruptions to the circadian rhythm — such as fall and winter weather — can mess up the sleep-wake patterns, resulting in grogginess, weight gain from altered eating and exercise habits and even mental health. Moving the clock forward and especially back can exacerbate the problem.

“Where people get messed up is they’ll go home and because it’s dark out, they end up falling asleep earlier or going to bed earlier and it messes with their circadian rhythm,” Peck said. “Just because it gets dark earlier, you’ve got to remember to try and go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time.”

A general lack of sunlight exposure — due both to fewer daylight hours and staying indoors during cold weather — is another issue. 

“Sunlight provides vitamin D, which provides all kinds of benefits that just make you feel better,” he said. “Try to spend more time outside when it’s sunnier, using good judgment, of course. You may not want to go outside when it’s freezing cold just because it’s sunny. 

“You can also increase vitamin D to make up for not being out in the sun as much. That helps. A lot of people take D3; I do, and that seems to help keep body chemicals in balance.”

Getting outside to catch some rays feeds another good remedy, that being physical exercise. Circadian rhythm disruption can throw exercise routines off-kilter, thus a simple walk in sunny winter weather delivers twice the benefits.

“Take advantage of exercising even if you might have to do that earlier or later than normal,” he said. “Anything that raises the serotonin level in your brain is going to have a positive effect on you as an individual.”

SAD appears to affect men and women equally, Peck said, but age does appear to play a role in whether a person catches the blues and for how long. 

“You hear a lot of wrong information about how much time an older person needs to sleep,” Peck said. “A lot of people have it in their heads that ‘Well, I’m older, I don’t need as much sleep.’ Well baloney, you do. Plus, older people tend to miss more sleep because they might have to wake up more often to go to the bathroom or because they naturally sleep lighter than others. So regardless of age, efforts should be made to keep somewhere between 8 and 12 hours of sleep.”

Peck noted that while SAD is more common and seems to hit people harder in the “fall back” portion of the year, the condition can also apply after the “spring forward” time change as well, though it’s generally a lighter impact. He said any undue feelings of sadness or depression, particularly those lasting longer than a few days, might be a signal to talk to someone.

“You might take two or three days to adjust, but most people do it pretty quickly this time of year,” he said. “If it takes longer than that, you may be dealing with SAD rather than just going through the blues. In that case, counseling probably isn’t a bad thing. It’s usually temporary and taken for just as long as you need it.”