Wintertime Sleep Tips: How the Season Impacts Your Sleep

The change of the seasons impacts more than you’d think. Our bodies and nature really do exist in one; we get our cues for everything from hunger, energy and — you guessed it! — sleep from the world around us.  Winter is more than snowfall and early nighttimes for us. It impacts how we sleep, when we sleep and what we need to both get quality sleep and feel awake during the day. 

Difficulty maintaining comfortable temperatures

Wintertime – especially Ontario wintertime – can be a notoriously hard time to keep yourself feeling comfortable. Wind chills, cozy sweaters, heat blasting and drafting windows can keep us fluctuating between too cold and too warm. Find that temperature sweet spot is coveted amongst Canadians during the winter months.

In general, cooler temperatures won’t impact the quality of your sleep. It can, however, make it more challenging to fall asleep. It’s best to sleep in a cooler room but in the winter, cool can quickly become cold. Bundling up too much to fall asleep can help you fall asleep, but then cause night sweats.

Dealing with cold temperatures

The best way to maintain this balance is to set your thermostat to drop in temperature at night, use cozy blankets and not to over-dress yourself for sleep. Give yourself some time to adjust to the dropping temperatures. 

Less energy expenditure

Winter season is known as hibernation season. When the snow is flying and the sun sets at 5:00PM, we’re spending the nights inside, doing puzzles, reading books, watching Netflix and staying warm. The energy we expend during the winter is less in general than we do in the winter. 

A study of Canadian activity levels found that, of 20,000+ Canadians over 19, 64% were inactive in the winter vs 49% in the summer. We expended 30% more energy in the summer than we do in the winter and are 86% more likely to partake in leisure physical activity in the summer months.  Now, that’s not saying that people don’t go for walks or that there isn’t plenty of winter activities you can do, but in general, we are lazier in the winter.

Outdoor activity has many benefits including sunshine, fresh air and burning off energy to help you sleep. 

Keeping your energy levels up in winter

Be mindful of wintertime habits and try to make an effort to get outside during the winter. There are many awesome winter activities to help keep you active.

• A snowy winter walk

• Ice skating

• Building a snowman

• Tobogganing

• Snow shoeing

• Skiing

• Winter camping

Try something new this winter and see how it helps you sleep!

Darker days

Darkness is essential to sleep. It helps our brains know when to sleep and triggers the hormones that it’s time to sleep. But, when darkness falls before dinner, it’s easy to let sleep become our main evening activity. Pair that with cooler temperatures and getting snuggled under the blankets and boom: nap time.

The dark can also be linked to lower moods and less energy. Feeling anxious and agitated makes it harder to sleep. 

Staying energized during the dark winter months

The best way to regulate your sleep habits and keep yourself feeling good during the winter is to stay active, open your blinds first thing in the morning to get sunshine and spend time in the fresh air. Stay connected to friends and family and making an effort to get out of the house can help as well.

Biological VS psychological needs

One of the biggest things to keep in mind during the winter is our physical need for sleep vs our psychological draw to sleep. The dark days and cool temperatures can make us feel like we want to sleep a lot. But that doesn’t mean that we actually need sleep. It’s natural to sleep an extra 1.5 - 2 hours a night but sleeping more than 10 hours a night is too much. 

Following all the tips above, including having hobbies and actives to keep you active, can help make sure you’re not sleeping out of boredom. Maintaining healthy sleep habits during the day will keep up the quality of your sleep at night.

Winter and sleep

Not many people think about how winter changes our sleep. Keep these tips top of mind and be conscious of these points to make sure your sleep quality stays up all winter long.