Dark Mornings and How They Affect Sleep

As winter mornings get darker, it gets harder and harder to pull ourselves out of bed. The lack of natural light and drop in temperature can leave us feeling less alert than on bright summer mornings, dampening our motivation and mood. This seasonal shift can also make it harder to sleep at night as our bodies struggle to adjust to changing daylight hours. Thankfully, understanding how these dark mornings affect our sleep and well-being can help illuminate solutions for a more restful winter.

Our natural body clock, also known as our circadian rhythm, is heavily influenced by sunlight. Stemming back to when we didn’t have clocks, this internal cycle told our bodies when to sleep and get up. Therefore, waking up before sunrise can disrupt this process, affecting our circadian rhythm and our mood, leaving us tired and unmotivated on darker mornings.

With busy modern schedules and winter days offering less than 8 hours of sunlight, relying solely on natural light to regulate our body clocks isn’t feasible for most. Fortunately, there are effective ways to support your circadian rhythm during these darker days, helping you sleep better at night and wake up refreshed, ready to tackle the day.

Nothing can interfere with sleep more than a change in our sleep schedule, which can throw off our circadian rhythm even more than changes in daylight. To help support your natural rhythm, try to stick to the same bedtime and wake-up time each day, including weekends.

If you’re struggling to get to sleep, a consistent bedtime routine can also help you wind down by associating sleep with familiar actions. Try calming activities such as reading or taking a bath to help your mind and body relax.

Learn more about the importance of evening routines in our helpful article.

To help your body’s natural melatonin production, turn off your big lights in the evening and opt for softer lighting instead. While we’re all guilty of sometimes using our phones to wind down, try to limit screen time in the hours leading up to sleep. Even with night mode on, your eyes can’t fully differentiate between light types, which can still impact your rest and leave you feeling tired in the morning. For more insights on how social media usage affects your sleep patterns, check out this article on the impact of social media on sleep.

On dark winter mornings when the sun hasn’t risen yet, use indoor lights to mimic the effects of nature. Turn them on as soon as you wake up and make sure they’re at full brightness; the light intensity of artificial light inside is much lower than natural daylight, so the brighter, the better.

If you can, try incorporating natural light into your daily routine in winter. Even on dreary-looking days, natural light is stronger than artificial light, helping regulate your circadian rhythm and sleep better at night.

Light therapy lamps and alarm clocks are another excellent way to boost your light exposure during winter, ensuring you get enough brightness in your day. These alarm clocks gradually brighten, mimicking a sunrise to help you wake up. Not only do they provide a gentler alternative to jarring ringtones, but they also make mornings less of a struggle. Place the alarm clock out of reach to avoid turning it off and succumbing to those darker mornings.

If you’re still struggling to pull back the sheets on winter mornings, read more tips on how to get out of bed when it’s cold.

Exercise is also beneficial for maintaining a positive and stable mood, which can contribute to better sleep. Regular exercise has been shown not only to help manage stress but also to help prevent conditions such as anxiety, depression, and SAD, which can all cause sleeping problems. Aim for around two and a half hours of moderate exercise a week to help you sleep, not just in winter but all year round.

Nicknamed ‘The Sunshine Vitamin’, our bodies rely on sunlight for most of our vitamin D needs. In winter, when sunlight hours are shorter, and we often stay indoors to keep warm, many of us don’t get enough vitamin D. Did you know that over 1 in 6 adults are vitamin D deficient?

Low levels of vitamin D are linked to several health problems. They can also lead to sleep disorders, including insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder, as they have been found to reduce melatonin production.

To help you sleep better in the winter, take a daily vitamin D supplement to boost your levels and try to incorporate some natural sunlight exposure into your day, even if it’s a short walk around your neighbourhood.

Commonly associated with stress, cortisol makes us feel alert and awake in the morning. The cortisol awakening response occurs around 30-35 minutes after waking up, causing a spike in the hormone, which is thought to prepare us for the day.

Studies have found that this response is also more reactive to light. It causes us to feel more awake on brighter mornings and potentially explains why jumping out of bed on darker days is more difficult.

Melatonin production influences our tendency to hit the snooze button on darker mornings. This hormone reacts strongly to light exposure, rising as our surroundings darken to induce sleepiness at night. Its production decreases with light, helping us wake up. However, when our alarm goes off before sunrise, melatonin levels remain elevated, leaving us groggy and less inclined to get out of bed.

Disruptions to our circadian rhythm can affect our sleep cycles and, in turn, heavily impact our mood, leading to conditions such as anxiety, depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder.

As mentioned above, a lack of sunlight can disrupt the function of the hypothalamus, a key part of the brain involved in melatonin and serotonin production. When daylight hours decrease, melatonin levels can rise—making us feel increasingly drowsy during the day—while serotonin, the hormone linked to mood, may drop. This imbalance can contribute to feelings of depression and fatigue.

Since trouble sleeping is a common symptom of these conditions, it can create a vicious cycle that’s hard to break, especially during the winter months. If you do feel like you may be suffering from a mental health or sleep condition, contact a health professional.

If you’re struggling to get a good night’s rest, discover our expert-reviewed tips on how to sleep better at night.

If you’ve been working on improving your sleep hygiene but still find yourself tossing and turning or waking up tired, it might be a sign of a sleep disorder. If it’s affecting your well-being, consider chatting with a healthcare professional about your options.