14 Effective Ways to Beat Winter Blues (comprehensive guide)

Last updated January 4, 2023.
Edited and medically reviewed by Patrick Alban, DC. Written by Deane Alban.

If you feel down and lethargic, sleep longer, and crave carbs during the shortest days of the year, read our comprehensive guide to beating winter blues.

Causes of Winter Blues

There is no medical consensus as to what causes winter blues.

Serotonin, known as the “happiness molecule,” plays an important role in mood, learning, memory, appetite regulation, and sleep.

Most antidepressants are designed to work by raising serotonin levels.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps you fall asleep at night by making you feel tired.

The brain’s pineal gland produces melatonin every night when it starts to get dark.

During the winter, people with winter blues produce higher than normal amounts of melatonin.

They also tend to have lower levels of dopamine and norepinephrine. 

Both of these neurotransmitters are essential for making you feel motivated, energetic, and interested in life.

Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction

Another theory is that winter blues are due to a disruption of the normal circadian rhythm. 

One study that followed patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), an extreme form of winter blues, concluded that this disorder is similar to jet lag.

It’s thought that people with SAD release melatonin too early or for too long a period during the winter, contributing to their lethargy. 

One study on the effects of melatonin and SAD found that people who consider themselves “night owls” minimized SAD symptoms by taking low-dose melatonin in the afternoon or evening while “morning larks” responded best to taking low-dose melatonin in the morning. 

Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that’s created when skin is exposed to sunlight.

Winter Blues Could Be in Your Genes

It’s thought that there is a genetic component to seasonal blues since it often runs in families, especially those with a history of depression or substance abuse. 

Interestingly, some researchers believe that winter depression might be a survival mechanism that helped our ancestors survive harsh winters.

Just as bears, chipmunks, and hedgehogs hibernate in the winter, it’s possible that some of us have an inherent tendency to semi-hibernate during the darkest months to conserve energy. 

Unfortunately, the demands of modern life do not allow us to spend winter curled up in bed.

Post-Holiday Depression

There’s a subcategory of winter blues known as post-holiday depression.

The holidays are fraught with pitfalls that can leave us feeling down.

From Thanksgiving to New Year (late November to January 1 in the US), many people eat badly, drink too much, sleep too little, and let their normal exercise routine slide.

You may be stressed about money since society almost demands that you “spend, spend, spend” during the holidays.

In fact, the economy depends on our overspending since more than 20% of retail purchases are made during the holidays, and this number rises every year. 

And once the holiday season is over, you have time to reflect on how badly they (or you) behaved.

You may despair over the reasons they act like they do and wonder why your family can’t be “normal.”

If you’ve recently experienced a major life stressor such as an illness or the loss of a loved one, you’ll be more prone to post-holiday depression.

Even happy life changes such as marriage, a new baby, or retirement are stressful in their own ways and the holidays can amplify normal feelings of anxiety, stress, or depression. 

How to Beat Winter Blues

Fortunately, winter blues will subside on its own with the warmer, brighter days of spring.

But there’s no reason you have to wait until then to feel better.

Here’s a look at some proven remedies that can have you feeling happier and more energetic now.

1. Eat a Serotonin-Boosting Diet

If you’ve got winter blues, you may find yourself craving and eating more sugar and refined carbohydrates than usual.

A healthy diet should emphasize vegetables, fruit, protein sources, and healthy fats, but you don’t have to completely give up eating carbohydrates.

In fact, there is a dietary “trick” that raises levels of mood-boosting serotonin; it involves consuming carbohydrates on their own, separate from protein.  

2. Take the Right Supplements

A number of supplements can help you overcome your winter doldrums.

Fish Oil

Fish oil may be the #1 supplement for treating winter depression.

Iceland is one of the northernmost countries in the world, yet has one of the lowest rates of seasonal affective disorder.

However, depending on the quality of fish where you live, eating that much could be a challenge.

Unless you are willing to regularly eat cold-water, fatty fish, it’s recommended that you take a fish oil supplement.

Vitamin D

Unless you live in an area where large areas of your skin get some sun exposure all year long, you almost certainly are not getting the vitamin D you need to keep up a positive mood during the winter.

When healthy adults with winter blues were given 10 to 20 mcg (400 to 800 IU) of vitamin D, their mood improved considerably. 

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is an amino acid that’s the precursor of happiness-boosting serotonin.

Research has found tryptophan to be as effective for depression as antidepressant drugs. 

One of the most common treatments for seasonal depression is light therapy (which we’ll discuss shortly).

When used together, tryptophan and light therapy offer significant relief of depression even when light therapy alone has not helped. 

St. John’s Wort

St. John’s wort is a popular remedy for depression, but it’s not one of our top picks since it has many side effects and interactions.

However, a few small studies indicate that it may be helpful for winter blues when used along with light therapy, so, if nothing else has helped, you may want to give it a try. 

3. Practice Meditation

There are many excellent reasons to meditate and overcoming winter blues is one of them.

Norman Rosenthal, MD, is a psychiatrist who pioneered seasonal affective disorder research.

They embrace winter, and one of the ways they do this is by getting cozy. 

The Danish call it hygge (pronounced hoo-ga).

They use the winter as a time to slow down and enjoy being at home, reflecting, and spending quality time with friends and loved ones.

By changing your mindset to embrace, rather than resist, winter, you too can enjoy this time of year more.

5. Get Some Physical Exercise

But don’t take the idea of spending time curled up in front of the fire too far.

It’s important to stay physically active.

In fact, exercise is one of the most important things you can do to stay happy all year long.

Exercise increases feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and endorphins.

So get some physical exercise, preferably outdoors.

Invest in warm winter clothing so you’ll be relatively comfortable.

Outdoor apparel in bright, cheerful colors can provide a small additional mood lift.

It’s not always easy or pleasant to exercise in inclement weather, but even a brief walk can increase feel-good neurotransmitters.

If exercise outdoors is not possible, exercise indoors.

Move your yoga mat or treadmill to a nearby window to get more daylight, if you can.

6. Plan Something to Look Forward To

Perhaps the easiest and most effective way to lift yourself out of your funk is to plan something to look forward to.

The heart of winter is an excellent time to build anticipation for spring and summer by making long-range plans.

One of my favorite winter ways to build anticipation is poring through gardening websites and seed catalogs to plan improvements to my garden.

7. Cross Off an Item on Your “To-Do” List

Is there a project or task you’ve been putting off?

First, add it to your to-do list.

Don’t worry about the size of the task.

Even a task as small as clearing out your junk drawer qualifies.

Then, after you’ve done it, cross it off your list.

Accomplishing any goal, be it big or small, provides a burst of dopamine, the brain chemical behind motivation.

Low dopamine is linked to apathy, boredom, and general lack of zest for life — all common signs of winter blues.

Post-Holiday Depression Coping Strategies

Here are a few other coping strategies when your blues are related to the holidays.

8. Express Gratitude

Get beyond the superficialities and consumerism of the holiday season and reflect on your beliefs as to what the holidays are really about.

Doing for others and being grateful is emphasized by most long-standing religious traditions and spiritual practices.

Expressing gratitude creates a surge of feel-good brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.

According to gratitude expert Robert Emmons, PhD, gratitude may work by reducing underlying negative emotions such as regret, envy, frustration, and resentment. 

Numerous studies have found that being grateful reduces the risk of depression. 

There is no better time to start a practice of gratitude than after the holidays.

A common way of developing a habit of gratitude is by journaling, but sharing those grateful thoughts with others is even better.

Get some note cards, put pen to paper, and write actual thank-you notes for any gift or act of kindness or hospitality you received during the holidays.

If you doubt the value of writing notes versus sending emails, I highly recommend reading A Simple Act of Gratitude: How Learning to Say Thank You Changed My Life by former lawyer and judge John Kralik.

He decided to start writing thank-you notes when his life was at an all-time low.

This book chronicles the profound and surprising ways this simple habit changed his life and touched the lives of those he thanked.

9. Stop Idealizing the Holidays

Stop comparing this past holiday to the idealized holidays of your childhood, the movies, or what you imagine others are experiencing.

The actual holidays are short, only a few days out of the year.

Don’t let what they “should” have been color your feelings after they’re over.

If you have trouble letting go, one of the best ways to keep your mind focused on the present is with meditation.

If you normally meditate but stopped during the holidays, make a point to pick it up again.

10. Clean Up Your Diet

For many of us in the US, the carb fest starts on Halloween and continues through New Year’s Day.

After a 3-month-long sugar binge, it becomes tough to stop.

Quitting sugar and refined carbohydrates is not easy and, in fact, the more you eat, the more addictive they become.

There’s evidence that white sugar is as addictive as cocaine and heroin! 

Eating sugar contributes to mood swings, irritability, and brain fog.

Replace unhealthy processed foods with plenty of vegetables, high-quality protein, and mood-boosting healthy fats like those in nuts, avocados, fatty fish, and coconut.

Give yourself permission to get rid of any remaining holiday cookies.

If you can’t bring yourself to toss them, give them away or at least put them away, out of sight, in the freezer.

11. Cut Yourself Some Slack

Christmas and other holidays that occur during the cold and darker days of winter are challenging for almost everyone.

This is nothing new.

Civilizations have celebrated the end of shorter days and the return of longer daylight hours for thousands of years.

Imagine how much harder it probably was to endure long nights before artificial lighting came along!

Be patient with yourself and know that, just as surely as spring follows winter, your post-holiday blues will fade with the change of the seasons.

And speaking of cutting yourself some slack …

Save yourself some heartache and skip making any New Year’s resolutions.

This is not the time to heap on unrealistic expectations — only 8% of those who make resolutions achieve their goals. 

This doesn’t mean you should not take steps towards improving your health, but there is no point setting yourself up for failure when you’re already feeling down.

Serious Treatments for Winter Depression

By definition, winter blues will subside by spring, but, understandably, you want relief now.

So if you’ve tried the lifestyle changes above, but still aren’t feeling like your usual self, here are three medically proven treatments that can help.

12. Light Therapy for Winter Blues

By far the most popular, well studied, and successful treatment for winter blues is the therapeutic use of light.

Light therapy involves sitting close to a light box for 30 minutes a day, usually shortly after waking up.

These boxes generally provide 10,000 lux (a measure of light intensity) which is about 100 times brighter than typical indoor lighting, but only 1/5 the brightness of a sunny day. 

During your session your eyes must be open, so you can use this time to read, eat, chat on the phone, or catch up on work.

People with winter depression often have an abnormally high level of melatonin, and light therapy can help normalize their levels.

The Center for Environmental Therapeutics (CET) is a nonprofit organization that studies the interaction of light and circadian rhythms.

They recommend using white light rather than colored or full spectrum light since these seem to offer no additional therapeutic value for winter depression.

If you choose a fluorescent lamp, pick one with a screen that filters out UV rays which can harm your eyes.

If you are working with a healthcare professional, follow their instructions on how long and when to use your light box.

But if you are attempting this on your own, CET has put together a few self-assessment questionnaires, including one to help you determine your circadian rhythm type, the type of SAD treatment most likely to work for you, and the optimal time of day for your light therapy sessions.

Chronotherapy expert Michael Terman, PhD, one of the founders of CET, reports that light therapy, when applied correctly, can work even better than antidepressants for the winter blues. 

Note: Do not self-prescribe light therapy if you have bipolar disorder since it can trigger mania.

13. Wake Up With a Dawn Simulator

A little-known remedy that works much like light box therapy is to wake up with a dawn simulator.

A dawn simulator is basically an alarm clock that works by gently waking you with light rather than sound.

It will mimic natural sunrise by starting with a dim light that gradually brightens over 30 to 45 minutes. 

Unfortunately, a substantial number of people who try using a light box fail to stick with it. 

But using a dawn simulator is much easier since your “session” is over by the time you get out of bed!

Research shows that using a dawn simulator not only improves well-being and mood, but also increases mental performance, by modulating cortisol and melatonin production. 

14. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Winter Depression

Light therapy is about 80% successful when it’s tailored to the individual’s sleep-wake cycle.

But if light therapy hasn’t worked for you, consider giving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) a try.

Light therapy can be useful for a fast mood boost, but CBT, also known as “talk therapy,” seems to be more effective in the long run. 

During therapy, you’ll learn how to overcome your tendency to hibernate and challenge negative thought patterns that contribute to your seasonal malaise. 

How to Tell Winter Blues From Seasonal Affective Disorder

Some people experience an extreme type of winter blues known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

The American Psychiatric Association classifies seasonal affective disorder as a subtype of major depression and its symptoms are similar to those of general depression. 

How do you know that you’ve crossed the line between winter blues and seasonal affective disorder?

To meet the medical criteria for SAD, you must experience these symptoms seasonally for two years. 

And, of course, if your symptoms persist beyond winter, your blues would no longer be considered a seasonal condition and may be indicative of another form of depression.

It may then be time to consult with a healthcare professional.