What the End of Daylight Savings Means for You: Avoiding the “Tough Times” of Seasonal Depression

Connor Recck ’23

Contributing Writer

This past Sunday, daylight savings ended. At 2:00 a.m. on the 6th, the clocks “fell back” one hour to 1:00 a.m.. Although there is always an initial excitement for an extra hour of procrastination for your Sunday scaries, the end of daylight savings is not often a joyous occasion for people. The end of daylight savings is usually accompanied with the beginning of a term commonly known as “seasonal depression.” In many ways this term has become commonplace in our popular culture and often signals tough times ahead. 

But what are these “tough times?” The end of daylight savings means shorter days and longer nights. It often is a sign that we are headed into winter, and cold months are ahead of us. It can be truly frightening when you think about it. This past Sunday, the sun rose at 6:29 a.m., and the sun set at 4:39 p.m.. People will often tremble in fear when you tell them that the sun is setting before 5:00 p.m.. 

It is truly an awful time for the sun to say goodbye to us for the day. Many people are not even done with their work or activities before the sun sets. People may go into work when the sun is rising and may not leave until after its dark out. The end of daylight savings can be a cruel reminder that the bliss and warmth of the summer months are far behind us, and there will be many months before we enjoy spring once again. 

The end of daylight savings is often a strange time in general, and it does not help keep motivation high in the thick of the semester. Personally, my biggest issue with this time of year is the sudden lack of motivation I feel when the days end so early. The days get brisk, the evenings become even cooler; suddenly, walking to the library becomes an even more difficult task than it was before. 

I will say, we have continued to luck out with the weather we have been experiencing as of late. It always feels a bit strange wearing shorts and a t-shirt when its 60 to 70 degrees in early November, but I most certainly will not complain about this. Despite this luck, the prospects of shorter days now loom. The worst of it all, the days will only continue to get shorter. The shortest day of the year will be Wednesday, December 21st, the day of the winter solstice. 

Cooler weather and shorter days may not seem all that bad now and may even be a refreshing change as fall turns to winter. I often associate these early sentiments of the winter season in November and December to be tied to the holiday celebrations that take place around this time. Once we ring in the new year, those prospects often reverse course. 

This is why I often fear the end of daylight savings, for the conditions we are bound to face in January and February. Nights are long, temperatures are cold, and conditions are all around unpleasant. Even after growing up in New England my entire life, I have never found a love for the cold and snowy conditions of winters in the Northeast. I’ve learned to tolerate them, but only to a certain degree. 

In my opinion, spring and summer can never come quickly enough. But I am not naïve, and I don’t expect the prospects of warmer weather to grace Connecticut any time soon, at least beyond the occasional sunny day. 

With this perspective in mind, we now head into the thick of winter. We must not let shorter days and longer nights plague our motivation. We must not let “seasonal depression” dictate how we live our lives during the next few months. I have often let the negative mindset take ahold of me towards the end of the fall semester; but this time, I feel a change. Let us reject “seasonal depression” and prevent the weather from controlling our lives!