Modern life runs on the assumption that human energy, mood, and output should remain stable year-round. The calendar changes, the weather shifts, the light fades, but expectations don’t. We are meant to perform, respond, socialize, and produce at the same pace in January as we do in July.
Enter biology… and it disagrees.
Long before electric lighting, climate control, and on-demand stimulation, human nervous systems evolved in rhythm with the seasons. Winter was a period of conservation: less light, less food variety, less movement, less outward expansion. Energy turned inward. Activity slowed. Attention narrowed.
That design didn’t disappear when society modernized. It was simply overridden. Unfortunately for the modern world and workplace, the body tracks seasons even when we don’t. Seasonality is biological. Human physiology responds to changes in light exposure, temperature, and day length whether we consciously acknowledge them or not.
As daylight decreases, the brain adjusts its signaling. Sleep architecture shifts, appetite changes and motivation and novelty-seeking often decline as well. Emotional tone can also feel heavier, quieter or more introspective, which can be uncomfortable for some people and heavily for others. These are not malfunctions but adaptive responses to an environment that historically required conservation.
The problem is not that these shifts occur. The problem is that modern life offers no place for them. Artificial light extends the day and screens stimulate the nervous system late into the night. Workloads also remain constant along with social obligations only slowing down in comparison to the holiday rush, but not actually adapting for winter. The body receives mixed messages: the external environment says “slow,” while the internal demands say “keep going, keep going!” This mismatch creates strain but because the system is incoherent, not because of broken internal mechanisms.
When Biology Is Misread as Pathology
In a non-seasonal world, normal winter physiology is often interpreted as failure.
Lower motivation becomes laziness.
Heavier emotions become a mental health concern.
The desire for solitude becomes avoidance.
Reduced productivity becomes a character flaw.
Many individuals who feel “off” in winter are not ill; they are experiencing a nervous system responding appropriately to seasonal cues. Pathologizing that response creates unnecessary anxiety. People begin to monitor themselves for symptoms, attempt to override their biology, or assume something is wrong with their lives when nothing has changed except the season.
Technology’s Effect on the Seasons
Technology has flattened time. Food is always available, light is constant, and work is asynchronous and endless. There is no built-in winter anymore, anywhere except a few exceptional places in the world where the light is heavily effected.
Biology and the nervous system didn’t flatten with it, and until the day that we are all robots that won’t change. Humans still operate on circadian rhythms -daily cycles of light and dark-and circannual rhythms, which are seasonal patterns that influence hormones, metabolism, mood, and energy. When those rhythms are ignored, the nervous system compensates. Chronic fatigue, emotional disregulation, burnout, and anxiety are not always signs of personal inadequacy or psychological fragility. In many cases, they reflect a long-term disconnection between biological rhythms and environmental demands. Winter tends to expose this gap; respecting seasonality is essential for closing it.
Respecting seasonality does not mean withdrawing from life or abandoning responsibility. It means recognizing that human capacity is not static and that honoring periods of lower outward drive or shifting the way we support that drive, supports long-term resilience.
In winter, many people benefit from:
– More sleep, not more exertion
– More meaningful commitments
– Deeper focus instead of constant stimulation
– Slower evenings and productive mornings
This is not about doing less forever. It’s about allowing the nervous system to move through its natural cycles without constant resistance. When winter is allowed to be winter, spring tends to arrive with more clarity, energy, and motivation, not because of force, but because the system was given time to recalibrate.
So, this winter – ask yourself: “What is my body responding to and what would seasonal congruence look like right now?”
In a culture that values consistency above coherence, this can feel counterintuitive. But biology has never prioritized uniformity. It prioritizes survival, adaptation, and rhythm.
Winter isn’t a problem to solve.
It’s a season to understand and to look forwards to.