How Students Can Fight The Winter Blues

There are actually serious mental health consequences of the lack of sunlight you receive

Winter sucks, especially for Canadian students. It’s cold, your work is piling up and your bank account is going down.

All those things notwithstanding, there are actually serious mental health consequences of the lack of sunlight you receive. It gets dark in the early evening and you probably don’t go outside as much.

You may have noticed a general lack of energy after work or school. You may want to come home and do nothing but nap. Then you nap for 2 hours and have trouble sleeping that night. A vicious cycle ensues.

Here are 5 things you can try, to bring your energy up over the winter.

• Get Every Second of Sun That You Can Your chance to get the most sun is in the morning. Do little things like walking to work or school, if you can. The fresh air and direct sun will actually do wonders. Try drinking your morning coffee in a window facing the sun. But do not…

• Rely on Too Much Caffeine Of course, your coffee or Redbull will take you out of any energy funks, in a hurry. But using them too much will cause you to crash harder when they wear off. Also, it can be very habit forming.

• Don’t Go Directly Home It’s too easy to go home and just veg. And if your plan is to do so, your brain will get ready to be lazy long before you get home. Go to the gym, go for a walk. Do your shopping. Do anything to stay active.

• Try a Winter Sport This does more than keep you active. It gives you something to look forward to on weekends or holidays. So pick up a snowboard, snowshoe, or a set of skis.

• Take Your Vitamins Take a multivitamin containing vitamin D-3 daily. The lack of sun is reducing the amount of vitamin D you get. You should replace it when you’re feeling down.