Today, Explained - Living in a winter bummerland

Episode Date: February 8, 2026

The days are shorter and colder, and can leave us feeling listless and drained of energy. When do the winter blues tip over into seasonal affective disorder, and how do we make the most of the season? This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh and Avishay Artsy, it was also edited by Avishay alongside Jenny Lawton, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. Photo by Thomas Warnack/picture alliance via Getty Images.  If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note here. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon presents Juan versus baby. Drunk on milk and power. This bundle of sheer chaos only comes with three settings. Crying, pooping, and crying while pooping. But Juan shopped on Amazon and saved on pacifiers, diaper cream, and a colossal bag of coffee beans. Hear that baby, Juan just rocked you to sleep. Save the everyday with deals from Amazon. Welcome aboard Via Rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and stretch. Steep. Flip. Or that. And enjoy. Via Rail, love the way.

Just less daylight get you down. It just gets really, really dark, and it can get really depressing. I should be in a bikini on a beach with a mechito in hand somewhere. Yep, it's that time of year. Here in D.C., it's dark, the snow on the ground is dirty, and this cold weather will not let up. It feels so blah. I feel like I get more irritable and generally feel like there's a gray cloud weighing on me. I tend to spend a lot more time alone and lose interest in being social and going to

out with friends. I don't mind the cold, actually. It's just the darkness and the dampness that are really tough to deal with. When it gets dark at like 4 p.m., like you don't really want to then like go to the gym. The winter and the weather is telling you, like, it's time to go to bed now because you have to get up early and soak up all of the daylight hours that you can. A lot of us feel this way. A poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that nearly half of the half of the United States

half of Americans say their mood takes a dip in the winter. And 5% experience a really acute version of this, seasonal effective disorder. It was a little difficult at first to differentiate because I have clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder. So my moods were a little bit low just compared to the next person. I've noticed more than other times of the year of real long. lack of motivation to do things, even indoor things. But that made me really notice a difference and look into whether or not I was being affected by seasonal effective disorder.

I'm John Blan Hill, and this week on Explain It to Me from Vox, why winter makes us sad and what we can do about it. To start, I called up Kelly Rowan at the University of Vermont. It was negative six degrees when I woke up this morning. And we have snow from the monster. storm that has not melted. We got probably 18 inches that's still on the ground. Kelly studies the winter blues and when it crosses the line to seasonal effective disorder. So seasonal effective disorder is on a continuum where most people at a high latitude are going to have some symptoms. It's just a question of how many and how bad, how interfering are the symptoms. Seasonal effective disorder is the extreme end where it's clinical depression in certain seasons.

Folks who have the winter blues have some of the symptoms, but not a clinical depression tied to the seasons. And then there's the rest of us at a high latitude that have a few symptoms, like maybe we're a little bit more fatigued. Our appetite changes with a preference towards carbohydrate-rich foods, we're moving a little bit slower, maybe socializing a little bit less, but not having significant symptoms that interfere with our life. So the reason most of us can confer around the water cooler at work and talk about seasonal effective disorder is as something we can relate to. People have some symptoms. It's just a question of how many and how bad. What's happening in our brains when the days get shorter? So when the days are shorter, specifically when the sun is rising later in the winter months, our circadian clock is affected by the, that by the long nights that we have in the wintertime.

Late lies the wintry sun abed, a frosty, fiery, sleepy head, blinks but an hour or two, and then a blood red orange sets again. The circadian clock is the part of our brain that regulates our daily rhythms and things like alertness and our sleep rhythms so that when we have a longer night, the circadian clock, gets kind of out of sync with the light, dark cycle, and can make us feel kind of slaggy, especially in the morning when the alarm is going off, and it's hard to get out of bed.

Before the stars have left the skies, at morning in the dark eye rise, and shivering in my nakedness by the cold candle bathe and dress. Robert Lewis Stevenson, wintertime. It's because the brain is saying, wait a minute, it's still dark out. It's still time to be asleep. What is this? You want me to get up and get going now? It's a bit confused this time of fear. Temperature does play a smaller contribution. People who have seasonal depression feel more depressed on cold days.

But really, what's carrying the day overall is day length is the strongest thing in the environment that predicts when the symptoms begin in any given year and how bad they are on any particular day. Do we know why some people have seasonal effective disorder and some people don't? I mean, is there a reason why some people's bodies are just so much more sensitive to this change than others? Women seem to be more affected than men, and this is true of depression in general. There's a two-to-one gender difference in depression, two depressed women for every depressed man. that seems to be the case in seasonal depression as well. Living at a high latitude, where on the winter solstice, the days are even shorter, like here where I live, Burlington, Vermont on the winter solstice, we have just over eight hours of daylight to work with. So people living here at my latitude are more likely to be affected than folks who are living in

Southern Florida, for example. Having a family history of depression, not necessarily seasonal depression, but depression runs in families. We don't know exactly what is inherited, but there is assumed to be some genetic component that confers increased risk for depression. Is there a particular point in winter when these feelings hit? Like, the days are getting longer, but I am feeling like, uh, can winter please be over? Please, please, please, please. now. Yeah, the research on that shows that for people that really have seasonal affector disorder, the clinical depression in the winter months, that January and February are the months that are the worst in terms of the depression symptoms at their peak. Now, they start much earlier than that,

very commonly around the time change when we move our clocks back in the fall is a big trigger for a lot of people that begins the cascade of the symptoms, but they tend to be at their peak January, February. Even though you're right, the winter solstice happens on December 21st. A lot of people are able to make it through December because of the holidays are somewhat invigorating for people, all the social activities, feeling like they can kind of make it through then. But then, after the new year, what's left? We've got, you know, a good three months of winter left to deal with. That's where it really tends to hit folks. One of the distinctions between seasonal affective disorder and the winter blues, or maybe just a few mild symptoms, is the duration. Generally,

the symptoms begin in the fall, and they persist through January, February, and into March, maybe even April. So again, on average, the episodes last for five months of the year, every year, rinse and repeat, do it again, year after year. So it's a lot. a lot of time to be struggling with serious symptoms of depression. Five months really is a long time to struggle, but there are things you can do to help bring back the sun. That's up next. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

When McDonald's partnered with Franks Redhot, they said they could put that shit on everything. So that's exactly what McDonald's did. They put it on your McChrispy. They put it in your hot honey macnuckets dip. They even put it in the creamy garlic sauce on your McMuffin. The McDonald's Franks Red Hot menu. They put that shit on everything.

Breakfast available until 11 a.m. At participating Canadian restaurants for a limited time. Frank's Red Hot is a registered trademark of the French's Food Company LLC. We're back with Explained It to me. I'm JQ, and I'm talking with Dr. Kelly Rowan, a professor of psychological science at the University of Vermont. And she says that while we can't change the seasons, there are things we can do. There are three treatments for seasonal depression that are effective. They include light therapy, antidepressant medications, and cognitive behavioral talk therapy.

Let's start with light therapy. What is that? how does that work? What does it do? Light therapy is timed daily exposure to bright artificial light. Most commonly, we're using 10,000 lux of full spectrum or cool white fluorescent light. Lux is a measure of light intensity. 10,000 lux is the same intensity that comes from the sky at sunrise on a bright, clear day. And we do light therapy.

first thing in the morning upon waking to try to simulate an early dawn and hopefully jumpstart that sluggish circadian clock back into a more normal phase, functioning more like it is in the summertime for the individual. We do light therapy under supervision. I always say even though you can walk into Costco and walk out with a happy light doesn't mean that you should. that light therapy is a medical device. It can have some side effects, usually mild things like eye strain, headaches, feeling a little bit wired up. However, it can have some more serious side effects, things like an increase in thoughts about suicide, the possibility of a dangerously elevated mood state called mania or hypomania.

So these are among the reasons why it's important. and to do light therapy, at least when getting started under the supervision of a mental health provider who can watch out for those side effects, help you address them, and also get the dose just right. Because light therapy is not a one-size-fits-all. There's no generic prescription. You mentioned how antidepressant medications can help, just like when you're treating depression year-round. There's also cognitive behavioral talk therapy, which you've actually adapted specifically for seasonal effective disorder. Tell me about that. If we break down the term cognitive behavioral therapy, we have cognitive. So we focus on thought patterns in CBT. We actually have people write them

down, record their thoughts when they're feeling sad. And then they bring those data into session. And we ask a lot of questions. Like, what's the evidence for that thought? Is there any other way to see it? To try to gently reframe some of those negative thoughts. So, that they're not wreaking as much havoc on mood. And in seasonal affective disorder, we see a lot of negative thoughts like, I hate winter. Winter is awful. I can't function at all during the winter months.

And we can work on those kinds of thoughts using CBT as well. And then, of course, there's the B, the behavior, in cognitive behavioral therapy. In winter depression, we see a lot of kind of passive behavior, people ruminating a lot, spending a lot of time on the couch, passively watching television. So instead of doing that, which we know only feeds the depression, we try to get people to identify things that they can do in the winter that will bring a sense of joy and doing some of those things instead of going into what I call hibernation mode.

seeing people as a big part of the behavioral side of CBT, getting people engaged with their social networks so that they're seeing people and their social activities look more like they do in the summertime than going into this passive hibernation-like state that we know only makes the depression worse. Okay, so another thing I hear about is the benefits of vitamin D supplements, especially if you live in a place that's less than sunny. A listener called us about that. I've lived in Oregon now, transplant from California for about eight years. And even still, I continued to take my vitamin D. I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and got blood work. And they said, yep, your vitamin D is low. Make sure to continue to take that.

Is that something that can help everyone? It would be wonderful if it were that easy. Here's the problem with the vitamin D explanation. If we drew an imaginary line across the United States from Boston on the East Coast all the way to Northern California on the West Coast, everyone above that line probably is vitamin D deficient in the wintertime. The reason we don't think that vitamin D is causally related to seasonal effective disorder is because everybody, north of Boston, should have seasonal effective disorder in the wintertime if it were really about. a vitamin D deficiency. So my advice would be, if it's something you're concerned about, get tested and use the supplementation if your doctor recommends that.

But I would not expect seasonal effect or disorder to be fully reversed by that. Is there anything people can do like in say September or October to get ahead of all of this? Like what can we do throughout the year to prepare our bodies for this time? Yeah, I think for anybody who struggles with the winter, whether somebody with seasonal affective disorder or somebody with the winter blues or a few symptoms, there are some things you can do. Do what you would usually do. If it was go to the gym and see people, do that. Don't get stuck in the pattern of going home, getting under a blanket on the couch, just because it's dark out. That's the first step down the slippery slope. to falling into a depression or experiencing a lot of symptoms. So I would encourage people to stay in their routines, stay active with your groups,

keep your social contacts going, schedule activities and do them with your social networks, and then watch out for those negative thoughts. Look for your natural antidepressants and try to use those as much as you can to fight it this time of year. Up next, What if the key to beating the winter blues is to embrace them? Investing is all about the future.

So what do you think is going to happen? Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go cashless. I would say land is a safe investment. Technology companies. Solar energy. Robotic pollinators might be a thing.

A wrestler to face a robot? That will have to happen. So whatever you think is going to happen. in the future, you can invest in it at WealthSimple. Start now at WealthSimple.com. Now streaming on Paramount Plus, it began on the shores of New Jersey. The calls of Jim, tan, laundry, reverberated north to Canada, where a new type of party animal resides. They move as a herd migrating to their favorite watering holes, asserting dominance by flexing, grinding, and twerking. Coupling is quick, steamy, and sometimes in hot tubs. When morning arrives,

They do it all over again. Canada Shore. New original series. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. I'm JQ. This is Explained it to me. And this is Carrie Leibowitz. I am now a winter person, although I would say that I'm a reformed winter hater. Carrie is a health psychologist and the author of How to Winter. Harnish your mindset to thrive on cold, dark, or difficult days. So during undergrad, I became really interested in the science of well. well-being and studying human flourishing and how we can help people thrive. And I learned about the work of this professor, Yor Wittorso, who just happens to be this world expert on human happiness, who lives and teaches at the northernmost university in the world, the University of Tromsa in

northern Norway. And then I sort of started thinking about, isn't it kind of funny or weird or surprising that this professor who is a world expert on happiness lives in a place that is so far north that the sun doesn't rise for two months each winter. Whoa, okay, no direct sunlight for two months. That is a lot. What did you learn? So in the end, I ended up moving to Northern Norway for a year to do this research. And so Yohar and I conducted a research study on what we call wintertime mindset. So what people think about when they think about the winter. And what we found is that people in Trumso relate to winter differently. So they're really not focused on the downsides of winter, the unpleasantries of winter, the discomforts of winter. Broadly speaking,

they're oriented to the season's opportunities. So the darkness and the cold is seen as a time of year to be cozy, to slow down, to rest. The winter light is really seen as special and magical and beautiful, which the winter light there is very special and unique. But really, they tend to orient towards the things that they like about the season instead of just sort of seeing it as a time of year to endure. Yeah, you know, I've seen pictures of that time of year in Norway. And even though the sun doesn't rise, it's like this gorgeous, like, blue light. What was it like to experience that? It is so magical. So the polar night, right, is this time of year where the sun doesn't rise directly above the horizon.

And when you hear that the sun doesn't rise for two months, maybe like me, you're picturing total pitch blackness. But that's not what they get in Tromso. So first of all, they get a few hours of what's known as civil twilight each day. So this is the same as that time right before the sun rises or just after it sets when the sun is still below the horizon. And so you have the sky that's pink and purple and deeply blue. blue and yellow, you're getting these magnificent sunrise and sunset colors.

But instead of getting them for 15 or 20 or 30 minutes like we do in most places on Earth, you can get them for two or three or four hours as the sun is skirting below the horizon for a couple of hours each winter day. And then before and after that period, you have the blue hours. You look outside and it's somewhere between like a Navy, a royal or a pan. blue depending on what time of day. And it's really like something I have not experienced anywhere else on earth. And I think that people in Tromso really revel in and appreciate this extra special light that they get during the darkest days of the year. Winter in Trumso is uniquely magical, right? So you usually have a lot of snow so you can ski and snowshoe and snowmobile. It's one of the

best places in the world to see the northern lights. So you have the Aurora Borealis, often dancing in the sky. The winter is the time of year that the whales come to the nearby fjords to feed. So you have whales. So there's all these things that, you know, it's giving Disney's Frozen, right? It's giving, it's giving Anna and Elsa, right? It's extremely magical. But that said, it still is a nighttime level of darkness for about 18 hours a day, right? It still is cold and blustery and wet and snowy. And so I think that the magic helps people there tap into the possibilities of winter. And I think this adapting to the winter really helps people enjoy it. Yeah, it's like you can't just stay inside for that long of a time. You have to

keep living. Why is getting out even in bad weather so important? It's important for a number of reasons. So first of all, we know that fresh air, connection with nature, and movement are all natural antidepressants. So if it's a time of year that you feel down, that you have the winter blues, we know that getting outside, moving, connecting with nature, even if it's just a little bit, is going to give you that mood boost. The other thing that I think is so important is that the more you stay inside in winter, the more it gets built up in your head as something you can't do, right, that you can't get outside or you can't enjoy yourself outside, or it's too hard or too difficult to go places and do things.

And that's going to limit you from doing anything, right? So winter is a great time of year for indoor activities. But even if what you want to do is go to the movies, go to museums, go take a dance, or a painting class or a language class, meet up with friends, go to the gym. All of those things require you to leave your house and brave the elements in some way, shape, or forth. Yeah, I think here in the U.S., we tend to isolate more during the winter, but in a lot of cold weather cultures, winter is like the peak social season. What do you make of that cultural difference? I mean, you've lived in both,

kinds of environments. You know, I think that there is a number of different cultural factors, right? If you've lived in a place that has historically been cold for, you know, thousands of years, that culture might be passed down, right? It would literally be life or death. If you didn't bring your neighbors close, if you didn't have people that you could rely on in the cold, dark, snowy months, that might be the difference between you surviving the winter and not. And so I think that that culture gets passed down, even in our modern times. I also think that so much of the culture in the U.S., in most places, wants us to be the same year round, right? The expectations are that you should be equally productive and energetic and efficient no matter the season, no matter

what's going on outside, no matter what's going on in the world, and that it's almost like a willpower failure if you're not. And so I think people are spending so much energy fighting the season that then they feel like they have nothing left to give. And so they just draw inwards and sort of are hibernating not in an indulgent intentional way, but in sort of this like depressive, reclusive, isolating way. Yeah, you know, I think we do have this culture of like going and going and going and going. So maybe it's this idea of the seasons are telling us to chill. Like, are we fighting this natural need for us to rest? I think so. I mean, if you look at every other living thing on earth, plant or animal, they all change their behavior in the winter. Every

animal slows down in the winter one way or another. And so I think it's very natural to feel more tired in the winter to feel that call to slow down, but we have diluted ourselves into thinking that we can and should be growing and producing more and more without breaks year round. And I think that there is a lot to be gained from instead embracing personal or natural seasons for fallowness and rest and downtime and rejuvenation and recovery. If someone wanted to adopt a more

Nordic way of thinking about, you know, the seasons, what's a small ritual that they can borrow to start finding that beauty in the dark right now? Big Light Off. So I live by Big Light Off. So no overhead lights, just small lights, preferably

candles, but also lay. And this is something you'll see throughout the Nordics, right? If you go to some of the darkest places on earth in Copenhagen, in Reykavik, in Iceland, in the darkest times of year, you will not see homes that are brightly lit with every light on inside the house. Instead, you will see homes that are lit with soft, glowing candles and lamps. And, you know, it's kind of cliche winter advice, right? So if you want to enjoy winter more, light a candle and then all your problems will go away, you'll be happy, like just light a candle. And obviously that's not exactly right. But there is something to intentionally embracing the darkness that transforms something that feels like a burden

into this opportunity for this cozy, moody, peaceful, restful lighting that will allow you to have a cozy evening, will help you sleep better, and will help you enjoy and embrace the winter. That's it for this week. We have a show coming up about credit cards. How have they helped you? Has the debt held you back? Messed with your relationships? Give us a call at 1-800-618-8-55 or email AskVox.com. And if you're a regular listener of this podcast, you can help us by becoming a Vox member. Members get a ton of cool perks, like listening to this episode, ad-free. Go to Vox.com slash members to learn more. This episode was produced by Hadeemawaddy and Avashai Artsy.

Avashai also helped edit the show alongside Ginny Lawton. Fact-checking by Melissa Hirsch and Engineering by David Tadashore. Our executive producer is Miranda Kennedy. I'm your host, John Glenn Hill. Thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Thank you.