Across much of the United States, it’s downright dreary outside. It’s cold, the snow has gone from beautiful and pristine to dirty and crusted over, and the motivation to get outside is low. A 2024 poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that nearly half of Americans say their mood takes a dip in the winter, and 5 percent experience an acute version of these feelings called seasonal affective disorder. (SAD can be treated with antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, and light therapy under the guidance of a professional.)
But what are the solutions for those who struggle with less severity? Psychologist Kari Leibowitz says intentionally embracing the season may be helpful. She’s the author of How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days.
Leibowitz accepts winter for what it is now, but it wasn’t always that way. “I grew up at the Jersey Shore in a very summer-centric town, and I grew up reall,y really disliking the winter,” she says. Her work is what eventually helped her come around. “During undergra,d I became really interested in the science of well-being and studying human flourishing and how we can help people thrive. I learned about the work of this professor Joar Vittersø, who just happens to be this world expert on human happiness, and who lives and teaches at the northernmost university in the world, the University of Tromsø in northern Norway. And then I sort of started thinking about — isn’t it kind of funny or weird or surprising that this professor who is a world expert on happiness lives in a place that is so far north that the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter?”
Leibowitz eventually moved to northern Norway for a year to research what she calls “the wintertime mindset.” She explains that mindset and how we can use it to beat the winter blues on the latest episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in podcast.
Below is an excerpt of my conversation with Samuel, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an email to [email protected] or call 1-800-618-8545.
What did you learn from living and researching in a place that has no direct sunlight for two months?
What we found is that people in Tromsø relate to winter differently. They’re really not focused on the downsides of winter, the unpleasantries of winter, the discomforts of winter. Broadly speaking, they’re oriented to the season’s opportunities. The darkness and the cold are seen as a time of year to be cozy, to slow down, to rest. The winter light is really seen as special and magical and beautiful. They tend to orient towards the things that they like about the season instead of just seeing it as a time of year to endure.
I’ve seen pictures of that time of year in Norway and even though the sun doesn’t rise, it’s this gorgeous blue light. What was it like to experience that?
It is so magical. The polar night is this time of year where the sun doesn’t rise directly above the horizon. And when you hear that the sun doesn’t rise for two months, maybe like me, you’re picturing total pitch blackness, but that’s not what they get in Tromsø. They get a few hours of what’s known as civil twilight each day. This is the same as that time right before the sun rises or just after it sets, when the sun is still below the horizon. So you’re getting indirect light, and you have the sky that’s pink and purple and deeply blue and yellow. You’re getting this really amazing watercolor effect. You can get these magnificent sunrise and sunset colors, but instead of getting them for 15 or 20 or 30 minutes like we do in most places on earth, you can get them for two or three or four hours as the sun is skirting below the horizon for a couple of hours each winter day.
And then before and after that period, you have the blue hours. There’s something about the angle of the light and the snow and the mountains and the sun that makes the world, it almost looks like you’re wearing cobalt glasses, like you’re wearing sunglasses that are tinting the world blue. You look outside, and it’s somewhere between a navy, a royal, or a pale blue, depending on what time of day. And it’s really like something I have not experienced anywhere else on earth. And I think that people in Tromsø really revel in and appreciate this extra special light that they get during the darkest days of the year.
That said, it still is a nighttime level of darkness for about 18 hours a day. It still is cold and blustery and wet and snowy. And so I think that the magic helps people there tap into the possibilities of winter. And I think this adapting to the winter really helps people enjoy it.
Why is getting out, even in bad weather, so important?
It’s important for a number of reasons. First of all, we know that fresh air, connection with nature, and movement are all natural antidepressants. The other thing that I think is so important is that the more you stay inside in winter, the more it gets built up in your head as something you can’t do. That’s going to limit you from doing anything. So winter is a great time of year for indoor activities. In most places in the world, you’re going to spend way more time inside in winter than outside. But even if what you want to do is go to the movies, go to museums, go take a dance class or a painting class or a language class, meet up with friends, go to the gym, all of those things require you to leave your house and brave the elements in some way, shape, or form.
I think here in the US we tend to isolate more during the winter, but in a lot of cold-weather cultures, winter is peak social season. What do you make of that cultural difference?
If you’ve lived in a place that has historically been cold for thousands of years, that culture might be passed down. It would literally be life or death if you didn’t bring your neighbors close, if you didn’t have people that you could rely on in the cold, dark, snowy months. That might be the difference between you surviving the winter and not. I also think that so much of the culture in the US wants us to be the same year-round. The expectations are that you should be equally productive and energetic and efficient no matter the season, no matter what’s going on outside, no matter what’s going on in the world; that it’s almost like a willpower failure if you’re not. I think people are spending so much energy fighting the season that then they feel like they have nothing left to give, and so they just draw inwards and are hibernating. Not in an indulgent, intentional way, but in sort of this depressive, reclusive, isolating way.
Are we fighting this natural need for us to rest?
If you look at every other living thing on earth, plant or animal, they all change their behavior in the winter. Every animal slows down in the winter one way or another. And so I think it’s very natural to feel more tired in the winter, to feel that call to slow down. But we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we can and should be growing and producing more and more without breaks year-round. And I think that there is a lot to be gained from instead embracing personal or natural seasons for fallowness and rest and downtime and rejuvenation and recovery.
If someone wanted to adopt a more Nordic way of thinking about the seasons, what’s a small ritual that they can borrow to start finding that beauty in the dark right now?
Big light off: so no overhead lights, just small lights, preferably candles, but also lamps. This is something you’ll see throughout the Nordics. If you go to some of the darkest places on Earth: In Copenhagen, in Tromsø, Norway, in Reykjavik, in Iceland, in the darkest times of year, you will not see homes that are brightly lit with every light on inside the house. Instead, you’ll see homes that are lit with soft, glowing candles and lamps, and it’s kind of cliche winter advice: “So if you want to enjoy winter more, light a candle and then all your problems will go away, you’ll be happy.” And obviously that’s not exactly right, but there is something to intentionally embracing the darkness. It transforms something that feels like a burden into this opportunity for this cozy, moody, peaceful, restful lighting that will help you sleep better and will help you enjoy and embrace the winter.
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