What
is winter tiredness?
If
you find yourself longing for your warm, cozy bed more than usual during
winter, blame the lack of sunlight. As
the days become shorter, your sleep and waking cycles become disrupted, leading
to fatigue. Less sunlight means that your brain produces more of a hormone
called melatonin, which makes you sleepy. Because the release of this sleep
hormone is linked to light and dark, when the sun sets earlier your body also
wants to go to bed earlier – hence you may feel sleepy in the early evening.
While
it’s normal for all of us to slow down generally over winter, sometimes
lethargy can be a sign of more serious winter depression. This health
condition, known medically as seasonal affective disorder, affects around one
in 15 of us but can be treated. Read more about how to recognise winter
depression. If your tiredness is severe and year-round, you could have chronic
fatigue syndrome.
Try
these tactics to boost your vitality during the winter months.
Sunlight
is good for winter tiredness
Open
your blinds or curtains as soon as you get up to let more sunlight into your
home. And get outdoors in natural daylight as much as possible, even a brief
lunchtime walk can be beneficial. Make your work and home environment as light
and airy as possible.
Fight
fatigue with vitamin D
The
wane in sunshine over the winter months can mean you don’t get enough vitamin
D, and that can make you feel tired. The
main source of vitamin D is sunlight, but here in the UK we can't make any
vitamin D from winter daylight between October and March so it’s especially
important to get vitamin D from your diet. Good food sources of vitamin D are
oily fish (for example salmon, mackerel and sardines), eggs and meat. Vitamin D
is also added to all margarine, and to some breakfast cereals, soya products,
dairy products and low-fat spreads. Even with a healthy, balanced diet it’s
possible to become vitamin D deficient. The government recommends that people
at risk of vitamin D deficiency – including everyone 65 or over – should take a
daily supplement.
Get
a good night's sleep
When
winter hits it’s tempting to go into hibernation mode, but that sleepy feeling
you get in winter doesn’t mean you should snooze for longer. In fact if you do,
chances are you’ll feel even more sluggish during the day.
We
don’t technically need any more sleep in winter than in summer. Aim for about
eight hours of shuteye a night and try to stick to a reliable sleep schedule.
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. And make sure your bedroom is
conducive to sleep – clear the clutter, have comfortable and warm bedlinen and
turn off the TV.
Fight
winter tiredness with regular exercise
Exercise
may be the last thing you feel like doing on dark winter evenings, but you’ll
feel more energetic if you get involved in some kind of physical activity every
day, ideally so you reach the recommended goal of 150 minutes of exercise a
week. Exercise in the late afternoon may help to reduce early evening fatigue,
and also improve your sleep.
Winter
is a great time to experiment with new and different kinds of activity. For
instance, if you’re not used to doing exercise, book a session at one of the many
open-air skating rinks that open during the winter. Skating is a good all-round
exercise for beginners and aficionados alike. There are also many dry ski
slopes and indoor snow centres in the UK, which will offer courses for
beginners. If you’re more active, go for
a game of badminton at your local sports centre, or a game of 5-a-side football
or tennis under the floodlights. If you
find it hard to get motivated to exercise in the chillier, darker months, focus
on the positives – you’ll not only feel more energetic but stave off winter
weight gain.
Learn
to relax
Feeling
time-squeezed to get everything done in the shorter daylight hours? It may be
contributing to your tiredness. Stress has been shown to make you feel
fatigued. There’s no quick-fire cure for
stress but there are some simple things you can do to alleviate it. So, if you
feel under pressure for any reason, calm down with meditation, yoga, exercise
and breathing exercises.
Eat
the right foods
Once
the summer ends, there’s a temptation to ditch the salads and fill up on
starchy foods such as pasta, potatoes and bread. You’ll have more energy,
though, if you include plenty of fruit and vegetables in your comfort meals.
Winter
vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, swede and turnips can be roasted, mashed
or made into soup for a warming winter meal for the whole family. And classic
stews and casseroles are great options if they’re made with lean meat and
plenty of veg. You may find your sweet tooth going into overdrive in the winter
months, but try to avoid foods containing lots of sugar – it gives you a rush
of energy but one that wears off quickly. Here are some quick and easy ways to
cut down on sugar.
NHS UK
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