Outsmart the Winter Season

Weather certainly puts mood and energy to the test. And each year when the darkness approaches, we ask ourselves: how do we stop the winter season from influencing us? We keep forgetting how to tackle the shift each year, and too many keep sprinting until the seasonal depression hits, or into a place of exhaustion. But is it possible to actually stop the winter season from affecting you?

A Dose of Daylight

Our brains run on light. Morning brightness resets the inner clock, adjusts hormones and pushes sleep and alertness in line. Even under dull skies, outdoor daylight is many times brighter than a typical living room. So treat daylight like a vitamin you have to take every day. Get outside early if you can, and sit near a window when you can’t. Where winter light is meagre, using a bright light therapy lamp for 20-30 minutes at the start of the day is proven to help. Combine it with a set routine of waking up and having your meals at the same time during the day, since reliable time cues stop your internal clock from drifting.

Movement is another dependable reinforcement. Moderate exercise, like brisk walking, cycling, dancing, or yoga, boosts mood through endorphins and improves sleep quality later on. You don’t have to set the bar too high on bleak days. Some stretching while you wait for the kettle to boil, a single song’s worth of lunges or a short indoor routine of exercises are already effective. Think of it as slightly adjusting your habits to the better, as the weather worsens. Behavioural activation, scheduled actions you can actually finish, increases activity more successfully than all the grand plans in the world that you keep dodging.

Social contact steadies stress systems, so schedule it like a regular prescription as well, whether you feel really up for it beforehand or not. It could be a video call, sharing an activity or meeting up every week with someone. When the roads are too slippery, have other options at hand, like group chats, playing online games together, or having a coffee over video.

Consistency Beats Weather

Make the forecast actionable with “if-then” plans, so the temperature doesn’t get to decide your schedule. If it’s raining today at 7am, then you will do a 15-minute indoor circuit before emails. If the temperature drops below freezing, then you swap the evening run for a lunchtime walk to catch daylight. One additional factor to bring into the equation is rewards as an incentive to keep up a focused routine. A favourite show, a good coffee, a warm bath, or free spins at Mr Vegas will lift the mood when you need it the most.

Track a few signals like sleep, steps and mood in a simple weekly log, in order to spot patterns and course-correct if anything starts to decline. For instance, you might plan extra social contact or an earlier bedtime one week to counteract the pattern. The point isn’t perfection, it’s reducing decision fatigue by pre-deciding what good enough looks like across different weather scenarios.

Counterintuitively, a little weather exposure helps too. It teaches the brain that these states are manageable. Over time, the surprise fades and so does the spike in reactivity. If the winter is long and dim, it’s reasonable to take vitamin D supplements, which everyone in the UK is recommended to consider during the winter season. And if low mood and energy usually drop with the seasons, seek proper help. Seasonal affective disorder responds to treatment such as bright-light therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy tailored for seasonal patterns, and, for some, medication.

Don’t allow the grey clouds to shift your mood to a minor key. Over time, a blend of environmental design, commitment and gentle encouragement turns the weather from a mood oppressor into something that doesnät hold power over you. You can’t negotiate with the sun, but you can design your day so the weather stays in the background instead of the foreground of your life.