Winter Isn’t the Problem - Entering It Unprepared Is
Published 7 days ago • 6 min read
Inside: Melatonin Ebook (no charge) & WHAT to do if you have entered winter with low reserves and you are already crashing....
Have you hit a winter slump?
It’s been unseasonably cold, rainy, cloudy, and dark here in Georgia… and after a week at home with a sick toddler (including two all-nighters), my morning and evening routines have been greatly disturbed 😅.
How I’ve felt these last few days (not so awesome) reminded me why winter gets blamed for everything - the sluggishness, mood dips, cravings, weight gain, sleep issues, and the annual “why am I like this?” spiral.
But winter itself isn’t the problem.
Winter is melatonin season - the time of year your body is meant to shift into repair mode: deeper mitochondrial cleanup, stronger immune recalibration, slower metabolism, and longer restorative windows.
It’s a brilliant design… if the rest of the year supported it.
And for most people, it didn’t.
Most enter winter unprepared - out of circadian alignment, low on vitamin D, overstimulated, and unsure how to support winter biology at all.
So today, I want to walk you through what to do if you entered winter “unprepared", and you are already feeling the impact.
Keep reading - and I’ve included my Melatonin e-book (free) for you in the next half of this email.
When I talk about melatonin - everyone automatically assumes I am talking about supplements (they forget we make it endogenously).
Melatonin is actually one of your body’s biggest nighttime protectors - a mitochondrial antioxidant (during daytime), an immune support signal, and the hormone that tells your entire system, “Hey, it’s time to repair.”
When your winter biology is actually working the way it was designed to, melatonin helps you:
• repair more deeply
• sleep more consistently
• feel calmer
• lower inflammation
• stabilize hormones and metabolism
• move through winter with more emotional steadiness
That’s the intended winter experience.
But here’s the catch: it only works like this if you entered winter with the right foundations - things like:
• enough vitamin D built during summer
• strong circadian light cues
• a regulated nervous system
• the seasonal rhythm your biology expects
Basically, you can’t run winter software if you never installed the summer update - and when you add chronic stress, out-of-season eating, constant cortisol spikes, illness, and blood sugar swings from sugary treats & alcohol, you disrupt the pathways that keep vitamin D and melatonin in a healthy range. That’s when winter becomes a perfect storm.
What Actually Breaks Winter Biology (the science):
1. Low Vitamin D Before Winter Begins
Vitamin D acts as a hormone involved in over 200 gene pathways, including immune regulation and mitochondrial function.
Entering winter deficient means your system cannot execute its normal seasonal shifts.
2. Circadian Disruption
Lack or morning sunlight & late nights, screens, and indoor living suppress melatonin and shift the master clock (SCN), leading to disrupted sleep, mood instability, and metabolic changes.
3. Chronic Stress + Elevated Cortisol
High cortisol directly suppresses melatonin production and weakens immune rhythm coordination, and high cortisol alters liver enzymes that activate vitamin D.
Too much cortisol at the wrong times of day also increases inflammation → inflammation consumes vitamin D faster, and chronic stress can downregulate VDR expression in tissues.
So even if you have vitamin D, you’re not activating it efficiently (which is why popping supplements might not be the fix you are seeking).
4. Late night eating
Food timing and seasonality influence peripheral clocks. When eat late at night, it suppresses melatonin and destabilizes metabolism.
Large glucose excursions & alcohol delay melatonin onset and blunt its amplitude - directly affecting sleep, mood, and repair.
6. Illness
Infection rapidly uses up vitamin D and melatonin because both play massive roles in immune signaling.
This lowers the “winter resilience reserve".
The Result? A Perfect Storm.
Low vitamin D + low melatonin + circadian disruption + stress + indoor living = a system attempting to run winter software without the summer update.
So… What if you entered winter “Unprepared” to begin with?
Unfortunately this is very common in today's world: your system was already misaligned before winter even started, and this means you need different support than someone who entered winter with those seasonal reserves.
Here’s what actually helps:
1. Morning light exposure
Truly nothing 100% replaces this. It anchors circadian timing and melatonin metabolism. I am currently testing out a 10,000 lux box from Chroma & will report back (but I DO NOT plan on quitting my cold rainy mornings outside before using the box....so I will never recommend it as a substitute).
MyCircadianApp tells you when sunrise & UVA rise happen for you & these are the 2 windows you really want to capitalize one (remember - even opening your car window counts!)
Your digestion naturally slows in winter. Don’t fight that with raw salads and cold smoothies. (If you want recipes - seasonal food lists & winter living tips - this is the most comprehensive resource I have available)
4. Red light therapy
A powerful way to support mitochondrial repair during the darkest months.
If you didn’t build vitamin D stores in the summer, your winter biology will differently.
UVB isn’t necessarily “breaking the season” - it’s supporting a gap your biology didn’t prepare for (you can read more about this for free on my brand new substack & when you become a free subscriber you'll get my UVB+red light protocol ebook))
6. Vitamin D supplements?
Most people in the quantum/circadian space will say that this is a 100% NO - and I have several reasons why I personally don't use them and recommend them broadly (I will do a deep dive newsletter very soon on this....so stay tuned).
However - there are times when someone may need short term support, but dose, cofactors, timing, and individual physiology matter - always work 1:1 with someone who understands all of these things.
The goal here isn’t to “force summer into winter.”, but to rebuild signals your biology expected long before December arrived.
• how to rebuild your natural melatonin rhythms *during the day and night*
• when supplementation makes sense and when it doesn’t
This will help you understand winter biology better than most practitioners.
And If You’re Entering Winter With Low Light Exposure…
You’re not alone - many people are......and at this point - the holiday - stress - illness & sugar (🫣) - have disrupted natural stores of melatonin and vitamin D.
Low vitamin D, minimal UVB, artificial lights & screens, inconsistent outdoor time, circadian disruption - this is the modern baseline.
That’s why I created something to help you safely rebuild the signals winter biology expects:
