Why Do I Feel Low When the Seasons Change?

If you notice your mood dipping as summer turns into autumn, there may not be one single reason.

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Things are starting to feel different

Changes in daylight can affect your sleep, energy and mood, but the change of season can affect us emotionally too.

And feeling a little different when the evenings start drawing in does not necessarily mean you have seasonal affective disorder. Sometimes, the change itself is enough to unsettle things.

I noticed it recently while out for a walk here in Plymouth. It wasn’t particularly late, but the light was already beginning to fade. There is always a point around this time of year when I suddenly realise that the long summer evenings are disappearing.

I actually like autumn. I like walking when the beaches are quieter and getting out towards Dartmoor once the summer crowds have thinned out. But I still notice that shift.

There is something about realising another summer is ending. The year suddenly seems to be moving rather quickly, routines are changing again, and evenings that felt long and open a few weeks ago are beginning to close in.

Sometimes our mood notices the change before we really understand why.

Why do I feel low when the seasons change?

Seasonal changes can affect both your body and your emotional wellbeing.

As we move into autumn and winter, there are fewer hours of daylight. Light plays an important part in regulating our body clock, including when we feel awake and when we feel sleepy. Less daylight can leave some people feeling more tired, sluggish or less motivated.

But I think focusing only on daylight misses part of the picture.

Seasonal low mood is a change in how you feel that happens alongside the changing seasons, which may be influenced by daylight, routine, activity, connection and what that particular time of year means to you.

Think about how different life can look in July compared with November.

You might naturally spend more time outside during summer. There are lighter evenings, open windows, trips out, gardens, barbecues, holidays and more opportunities to do something after work without feeling as though the day is already over.

Then autumn arrives.

You leave work and it is getting dark. Going for a walk requires a coat and a bit more determination. Plans become easier to cancel. You might spend more time at home without consciously deciding to.

None of those things seems particularly significant on its own. Added together, though, they can change the rhythm of your life.

Is feeling low in autumn the same as seasonal affective disorder?

Not necessarily.

Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that follows a seasonal pattern, usually becoming more noticeable during autumn and winter and improving during spring and summer.

But there is plenty of space between feeling completely unaffected by the seasons and experiencing seasonal depression.

You might simply notice that you have less energy.

Getting started in the morning might feel harder. You might want to stay at home more often, feel less enthusiastic about plans, or find yourself feeling unusually flat or irritable.

Perhaps things that are normally manageable begin requiring slightly more effort.

That difference matters. You do not need to diagnose yourself because September feels a bit strange, but you also do not need to dismiss a change in how you feel simply because you can still function.

Not every change in mood needs a diagnosis. Sometimes it is enough to notice that this time of year affects you and give yourself a little more understanding around that.

Why can autumn make me feel sad or nostalgic?

Autumn has a way of making time visible.

Leaves change. Children go back to school. Summer clothes disappear into cupboards. Christmas starts creeping onto supermarket shelves while some of us are still stubbornly wearing sandals.

It reminds us that another part of the year has passed.

That can bring nostalgia with it.

You might find yourself thinking about where you were this time last year, or several years ago. A particular smell, temperature or quality of light can bring back memories surprisingly vividly.

Sometimes those memories are comforting. Sometimes they hurt.

This can be particularly noticeable after a bereavement. The first colder evening, the first autumn birthday or the approach towards Christmas can bring a loss back into sharper focus.

Grief does not follow a tidy calendar, but dates, seasons and familiar routines can carry memories. If you are finding that a loss becomes harder at particular times of year, you may find my page about bereavement counselling in Plymouth helpful.

Why do darker evenings make everything feel harder?

Darkness can change our behaviour surprisingly quickly.

Imagine getting home at six on a bright June evening. There is still plenty of day left. Going for a walk, meeting someone or popping out to do something can feel relatively easy.

Now imagine exactly the same time in December.

It is dark. It might be raining. Your home is warm. The sofa is right there.

Suddenly leaving the house feels like a considerably bigger proposal.

If you are already tired, anxious or overwhelmed, that extra bit of effort can matter.

You might start doing less of the things that normally help without really noticing. Perhaps you see people less often, move your body less, spend less time outside or lose some of the little transitions that break up your day.

There can be a loop here. Feeling low makes doing things harder, then doing less can leave you feeling even flatter.

Anxiety can play a part too. When life becomes smaller, there can be more room for worrying, replaying conversations and getting caught in your own thoughts. If that feels familiar, you can read more about counselling for anxiety in Plymouth.

Sometimes the change of season brings a change of pace

September can feel like a second January.

Schools return. Work settles back into its usual rhythm. Holidays are over. Diaries fill up again and there can be a sudden sense that it is time to get organised and get on with things.

If summer gave you a little more breathing room, the return to routine might make you realise how tired you actually are.

I see this in counselling quite often. Someone assumes they should feel better after having some time off, but instead they come back and discover that the exhaustion was waiting for them.

A holiday can give you a break from burnout. It does not necessarily change what was causing it.

So if your mood drops as autumn arrives, it can be useful to look beyond the season itself.

What has changed?

What are you returning to?

What are you already carrying?

Sometimes the darker evenings are not creating the problem. They are making an existing one harder to ignore.

What can help when your mood drops as the seasons change?

Most advice about seasonal mood quickly turns into a list of things you should be doing.

Get outside. Exercise. Eat well. Sleep properly. See people.

There is nothing inherently wrong with those suggestions, but when you are already tired or low, another list of things to achieve can become one more thing to feel bad about.

I would start somewhere simpler.

Notice what changes for you.

Maybe your sleep shifts once the mornings become darker. Perhaps you stop walking after work. You might see friends less often because spontaneous evening plans disappear. Or you might simply find winter tiring in a way that summer is not.

You do not need to fix all of that.

Understanding your own pattern gives you somewhere to begin.

If you know that you tend to disappear indoors once autumn arrives, perhaps keeping one regular walk matters. If connection drops away, perhaps making plans earlier rather than waiting until you feel like going out helps. If your energy genuinely changes, you may need to adjust what you expect from yourself rather than trying to maintain your summer pace throughout winter.

The seasons can change how life feels

There are things I genuinely enjoy about autumn in Plymouth.

The beaches become quieter. Dartmoor starts changing. There are those crisp, bright days when being outside feels particularly good, alongside the inevitable days when Plymouth seems to be experimenting with how many different directions rain can travel in.

But enjoying autumn does not mean I have to love everything about the transition into it.

You can enjoy darker evenings and still miss the light.

You can love autumn and feel sad that summer has gone.

You can look forward to winter and still notice that your energy changes.

Two things can be true at once.

And sometimes a change in season simply makes something that was already difficult a little harder to carry.

If autumn has arrived and you are noticing that you feel more anxious, low, overwhelmed or simply less like yourself, counselling can give you somewhere to make sense of what is going on. I offer counselling in Plymouth from my practice in Plymstock, as well as online counselling across the UK.

You do not need to know whether it is the weather, the time of year or something deeper before you begin.

The aim is not to pretend the season has no effect on you.

It is to notice what you need when it does.

When should I pay more attention to seasonal low mood?

A few lower-energy days as summer ends are different from feeling persistently low for weeks or months.

It is worth paying closer attention if you notice that your mood is significantly affecting your everyday life, particularly if you are withdrawing from people, struggling with work or daily tasks, losing interest in things you usually enjoy, or finding that the same substantial change happens each autumn or winter.

Speaking to your GP can be a useful starting point if you are concerned about depression or think you may be experiencing seasonal affective disorder.

You do not need to wait until things become unbearable before taking how you feel seriously.

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