Sleeping With Seasonality
An Invitation to Check In This Rotation
When we ignore the seasons outside of our window, we’re missing a massive opportunity to listen and understand ourselves better. Factoring in what the outdoor season is to your sleep-health rituals is not only helpful—I would argue that it is crucial to optimizing your ability to rest and restore, no matter what time of year it is.
Why Does Paying Attention to the Seasons Matter for Sleep?
It's easy to stigmatize ourselves for not getting enough sleep, or sleeping too much. To flog ourselves for wanting to take a nap on a rainy day when our to-do list is full or to get up early in the winter, even when the sun doesn’t peek over the skyline until 8:30 AM.
In three and half years of graduate school I studied sleep, stress response systems, and how components of mindfulness and self-compassion related to how we navigate our world. Even after thousands of hours of learning that many people in the general population has unique patterns that emerge and change under different environmental circumstances— I still wind up pathologizing myself in the winter months when I'm finding myself in bed more often and occasionally annoyed myself in the summer when Im getting up too early to fathom how on earth I could possibly be getting enough rest.
The truth is—we are of the earth.
Our nervous systems evolved with the earth and the natural cycles of the wild spaces around us. No matter how much modern culture tries to separate us from changing seasons or weather patters and convince us that we should be just as productive in the depths of winter as we are in the brightest spots of summer, the reality is that we have different capacities and strengths at different times of the year.
There is a lot to unpack around these topics but today’s article is primarily going to focus on how we sleep and stress differently during different seasons of the year. After identifying some of the blocks and strengths of each season, there will also be some gentle tips around how to optimize your sleep health for each of these seasons.
Summer
Summer is most often when we get the least amount of sleep. This is primarily because of two things: light and heat. Our bodies need to drop a certain amount of temperature every single night to go into some of our most restful stages of sleep and obtain the correct ratios of sleep. Our bodies are in environments where the temperature is warmer during this time of year naturally leaves us with more fragmented sleep. If you ever sleep with another person in the bed with you, you'll know exactly what I mean. Even if we are going to bed and and getting out of bed at the same time every day, if we are waking up more frequently throughout the night, we’ll end up with less total sleep time.
One way to combat summer temperatures interrupting your body’s preferred Goldilocks Zone is actively cool your body off before you fall asleep.1 Not only is it important to actively cool yourself off before bed, but it is also great to have some kind of a ‘cool down plan’ prepared if you tend to wake up hot in the middle of the night. If you have some means of cooling down ready and waiting, you’re more likely to use it when you wake up delusional and groggy at 3 AM.2
Another aspect of disrupted sleep in the middle of summer is the light!
On average we sleep about one hour less in the summer months than we do in our winter months because of the amount of light exposure. This, of course, differs depending where on the globe you live and how much the light exposure shifts from season to season. The further away from the equator you live, the more likely that this will dramatically impact the amount of total sleep time you'll have during the summer than when you're sleeping during the winter.
There are multiple ways to combat this, but none of them are as effective as a quality pair of nightshades or tying a dark bandana around your eyes before bed.
The great news about summer sleep is that even though we might be sleeping less on average than at different points of the year, because of other factors (like more pleasant weather, more sun exposure, more easily accessible social time, a higher likelihood to exercise) we perceive that our energy levels are higher and are less disturbed by any lack of sleep. This is a great time of year to implement new larger sleep health goals because they’re more likely to smoothly integrate themselves without disrupting our day-to-day functioning.
Fall
In the autumn months our bodies very gradually increase in total sleep time as we approach the darkest part of the year. Opposite of what happens in the summer time—our temperatures begin to cool, our light begins to fade away a bit sooner, this is often when people report having some of their best, most restful sleep. We're often still socializing regularly (as compared to when in deep winter) and this also gives our bodies a sense of safety and belonging before we fall into bed bed in a way that helps us drift off easily at night. This shift towards longer total sleep time is gradual and often goes unnoticed by people during this time of year.
When I’m working with folks who really want to dig in and make some big changes to their sleep patterns, I often recommend they do so here. With our bodies more naturally inclined to get good, deep rest during this time of the year, we are less impacted by more dramatic changes.
Winter
In winter we can sleep up to an hour longer on average than we do in the summertime. However, most of our dominant culture does not accomodate for this natural biological shift. As you can probably guess, with cooler temperatures, and increased exposure to darkness increases, our bodies natural inclination towards resting and sleeping much more frequently. Because our society doesn't accomodate leaning into this seasonal shift, we often end up stigmatizing ourselves (and others) for feeling more daytime sleepiness during this time of year, and people during the winter are more likely to report a higher lack of sleep satisfaction because of it. We also tend to socially isolate more in the winter months rather than in other parts of the year, and this can lead to feelings of loneliness, a lack of belonging, and sometimes even burdensomeness—which has been shown to decrease healthy sleep measures. Specifically, we often take much longer to fall asleep, have difficulty staying asleep consistently throughout the night, and wake earlier than we mean to wake.
When people are looking to lean into sleep more easefully in the winter, my recommendation is to really listen to what the body is asking for and allow the body as much time and rest as it craves. Some people feel nervous that they will sleep their entire winters away (which is a valid fear!), however I remind people that we do eventually get bored of resting so often. This inherent boredom is a sign that our nervous system is so completely down-regulated, safe, and comfy that it will naturally start to look for more stimulation all on its own. No need to spur us into action, our bodies will do that for us when we’ve given it the rest it needs.
Spring
In the spring, we have a similar, but opposite, phenomena happening in our bodies that is parallel to our sleeping patterns and shifts in the autumn. With the light returning to our lives, and temperatures gradually rising, people are often finding themselves waking up earlier. However, people generally report having more fitful, less satisfying in the sleep because this transition does not happen quite as gracefully as it does in the reverse. Often the light is coming back and the temperature is trending upwards towards something pleasant—but the temperatures are less predictable in the spring which impacts the bodies ability to register a feeling of safety and stability—associating with generally more fitful sleep. In other words, our bodies register this inconsistency in temperature and weather as chaotic and unpredictable and this requires more overall rest to help us function within such extreme changes in weather conditions.
Some Check In Questions
As we’re seeing more light and warmer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s a great time to check in with yourself and your sleep. Notice where you might be trying to hang onto an outdated seasonal idea of what your sleep might look like and where you can lean into the present moment to deeply tend to what you’re needing in this current season.
Some questions to ask yourself might be:
How did I sleep and rest last season?
What went well? Where did I feel satisfied with my rest and sleep?
What didn’t go as planned? Where did I feel dissatisfied with my rest and sleep?
What shift in work/life/social obligations typically come with springtime for me?
How do these contrast with the season I just came out of?
What might I want or need to do to prepare myself for this shift?
Are there ways I can protect my rest looking forward at these obligations?
How can I be kind and curious with myself regardless of what this season ahead holds?
If this spurs any questions and quandaries around sleep, you know where to find me!
As per usual—thanks for being here
Wishing you a restful April,
Dagny Rose
This sub-section of The Art of Rest, is all about—you guessed it—The Rest.
As a trained sleep scientist and mindfulness teacher & researcher, here we explore the everything related to rest. Whether we are unpacking the newest evidence-based sleep health tips, exploring day-to-day tools for bolstering and protecting rest, or diving into a world of dreams, “The Rest” is going to regularly touch into what a restful life is, and how to move towards one5
Looking For A Personalized Way to Optimize Your Rest?
Exciting announcement! My books are now open again for coming out of hibernation season! I am looking forward to giving springtime guidance around sleep health & nervous system regulation around stress. I offer individualized 1:1 guidance for those who want to use rest as a way to expand their creativity, folks who just need a tune up, all the way towards people who might be dealing with chronic rest related issues. Shoot me an email at dagnyrose@theartofrest.me to inquire about getting started. My final spring booking spots are April 28 - June 10 and they are filling up fast.
Some common versions of this are:
Removing most of your heavy bedding and changing to lighter sheets
Jumping into a cold shower or cold bath for several minutes before bed
Sleeping in less layers
Adjusting the air conditioning or fans in your space
Opening windows at night
Create a makeshift “Swamp Cooler” effect by having a spray bottle of water near your bed that you can lightly dampen your sheet in the middle of the night and leave a fan on you to evaporatively cool off your body
In the middle of the night our pre-frontal cortexes are shut down and the emotional centers of our brain are left unsupervised. Essentially, in the middle of the night we’re likely to feel very emotionally uncomfortable by things but have less tools to do anything useful or productive about it. This dynamic, in itself, can be distressing enough to wake us up and keep us awake in the middle of the night. Having a plan to cool ourselves down at the ready is great because we don’t have to “think” about it at all, we can automatically tend to our anticipated needs and then try to fall back asleep without waking ourselves up further by being stressed about not knowing what to do.