By Ariana Martinez

When winter makes its way around students start to feel less motivated and struggle to get through their days. They fall behind on schoolwork and stop trying. This could be because they are dealing with feelings of sadness or loneliness. Why is it always around winter though? Due to the colder weather, reduced sunlight, and shorter days, people tend to get seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or the winter blues.

SAD is a type of seasonal depression that causes people to feel withdrawn and hopeless, have low energy, oversleep, put on weight, and lose interest in daily activities. While the winter blues you get on and off throughout the cold season, having a feeling of wanting to do nothing and feeling unmotivated, yet you are still able to function. Per year both SAD and the winter blues usually affect around ten million people throughout the North states, including high school students. Having to go to school every day in the cold weather and doing the same routine over and over again can cause students to feel unmotivated and lose interest in getting their schoolwork done, especially after coming back from the holidays. 

During winter the days are shorter because of standard time. This means we are getting less sun than we’re supposed to receive. Lack of sunlight is a huge part of why people get in these slumps. Not only is sunlight important so we can receive vitamin D, it’s also important to give us energy. It improves our moods, improves sleep, helps with weight loss, and more. This decrease in sunlight may disrupt your body’s internal clock, causing poor sleep. Reduced sun can also cause a drop in serotonin levels. Serotonin is one of the natural body chemicals that control your mood. It influences learning, memory, happiness, sleep, and hunger, in addition to regulating body temperature. With your serotonin levels so low, you can start to feel depressed. 

SAD being a more severe form of depression than the winter blues does have risk factors that may increase the chances of getting seasonal affective disorder: Having relatives who’ve had depression, already having depression or bipolar disorder, and low levels of vitamin D.  

Winter slumps normally go away with time, once spring and summer come back. But what can we do about it until then? These slumps have been studied since the 1980s. While causes and solutions have been found, a lot of why these things happen to people are still a bit confusing with the random shifts in their moods. 

The winter blues is not a medical disorder of any sorts, it’s a fairly common thing people find themselves with during the winter. The winter blues is more something that goes away over time, it normally has something to do with a loss of some kind, or a longing feeling for something. Due to these facts there is no need for any medication but getting exercise and going outside as much as possible will help treat it. 

On the other hand, SAD is a lot more severe, seeing it is a type of depression. SAD has a higher chance of turning into something more severe, especially if you have past experience with depression. There are many ways of treating it: making sure you stay active, get whatever sun you can, stay warm, eat healthy, and see family and friends. If it’s more severe it’s recommended to communicate with a talking therapist, like a cognitive behavioral therapist, you can take antidepressants, and/or do light therapy. Light therapy is the exposure to direct sunlight or artificial light at controlled wavelengths. Dr. Matthew Rudorfer, a psychiatrist and psychologist, has said “SAD is actually quite treatable and the treatment options keep increasing and improving.”