Days Are Getting Shorter. Five Habits to Keep You Balanced.
Jasmin Cohen
Head of Growth
Article highlights
Light is your lever in the dark season
- Your internal clock mainly follows the light you get in the morning.
- A short walk in the morning and a spot by the window during the day bring more daylight into your day.
- Putting your display away an hour before bed supports your sleep.
Fixed times give you stability
- Getting up at the same time on weekends keeps the gap between your internal clock and daily life small.
- This gap is called social jetlag.
- As a rule of thumb, deviate by one hour at most on weekends.
When light alone is not enough
- If your mood dips every autumn, light therapy is well studied for seasonal depression.
- A vitamin D test can give a hint that you discuss with your doctor.
- The DGE does not recommend routine tests without a specific reason.
At the end of October we turn the clocks back, and evenings get dark early. On top of that, the days are getting shorter overall, and we spend most of our time indoors anyway.¹ This is exactly the time to adjust a few habits. This article shows you five you can start right away, explains when light therapy and a vitamin D check make sense, and gives you a plan for the first seven days.
What changes in autumn
There is an internal clock in your brain. It mainly follows light, and morning light matters most.¹ In autumn the days get shorter, and because many of us head straight to the office, we barely notice how little daylight reaches us. Your body does.
Five habits for the transition
Step outside in the morning. Ten to fifteen minutes before or after breakfast is enough, even in fog. In a measurement study with office workers, people with plenty of morning light fell asleep faster, especially in winter.¹
Get up at the same time, even on weekends. If you have to be up early during the week and sleep three hours longer on Sunday, you live in a kind of constant time shift. A large study links this gap, known as social jetlag, to higher body weight.³ Rule of thumb: on weekends, get up an hour later at most.
Bring daylight into the office. Sit by the window, pull the blinds all the way up and spend your lunch break outside.
Turn down the light in the evening. A glowing display shortly before bed shifts your internal clock. In a controlled study with twelve young adults, participants fell asleep almost ten minutes later on average after four hours of reading on an e-reader, and their melatonin was suppressed more strongly.² So put the display away an hour before bed and read on paper instead.
Move outdoors after work. A short walk is the opposite of sofa and screen and helps many people switch off.
When light alone is not enough
For many people, autumn is mainly a phase in which they feel a bit sluggish. If your mood dips every autumn or winter, however, this is called seasonal depression. Light therapy is well studied for this: a 2005 meta-analysis found a clear effect of bright light.⁶ For other forms of low mood the findings were thinner, and as an add-on to antidepressants light brought no measurable benefit.⁶ If you recognise this pattern, talk to your GP practice. They can clarify whether light therapy is right for you.
Vitamin D: what a test can show you
The body produces vitamin D through the skin when sunlight hits it. In the winter half-year our skin produces significantly less, which is why many people now pay attention to their supply. The D-A-CH recommendation for adults is 20 micrograms per day if the body does not produce enough itself. The target is a blood level of at least 50 nmol/l.⁴ The DGE does not recommend routine tests without a specific reason.⁴
A test can still give you a hint as to whether a closer look makes sense. The MavieMe vitamin D test analyses a blood sample you take at home and explains the result in plain language. It is a good reason to discuss your values with your doctor. It does not replace a medical assessment.
One thing is worth knowing: vitamin D is not a mood switch. A genetic study with over 300,000 people found no evidence that a higher vitamin D level protects mood.⁵ So the test is one building block of your overall picture, not the answer to every autumn slump.
Your first seven days
Day 1: Set a fixed wake-up time that you keep on weekends too.
Day 2: Go outside for ten minutes in the morning, without your phone.
Day 3: Check your desk: is it by the window? If not, pull the blinds all the way up.
Day 4: Lunch break outdoors.
Day 5: Put your display away an hour before bed.
Day 6: Check the weekend: how far does your wake-up time deviate?
Day 7: Assess your mood and sleep honestly. If symptoms persist: GP practice.
Conclusion: getting through autumn in small steps
The dark season does not have to slow you down. With a bit more light in the morning, regular times and less screen time in the evening, you give your body exactly the signals it needs now. If you notice that autumn hits you harder every year, get support: from your GP practice or with a test that gives you first hints. Start today with one step, the rest follows step by step.
