You’ve likely found it difficult to rouse yourself out of a deep sleep this winter, and have started getting tired earlier in the afternoon than you were used to in the summer. I know I have. When the weather turns cold and the days get short, I just want to hibernate!

Some people interpret this as humans simply needing more sleep in the winter, but that’s a total myth. People need the same amount of sleep each night regardless of the season. For each person, their ideal amount of sleep will be different, and it changes as they age, but there’s no biological need to go to sleep earlier or to sleep in during the winter time, although it sure might feel good!

The answer as to why people feel they need more sleep during the winter is two-fold. The first reason is that the human sleep cycle is regulated by light. The pineal gland in the human body secretes melatonin whenever it’s dark out, and stops secreting melatonin when it’s lit out. Melatonin is the body’s natural way of putting itself to sleep. In the winter, there’s less daylight in general – it gets to light out later in the morning than in summer and gets dark out earlier in the day. Since it’s often still dark when people are first getting up in the morning in winter, the pineal gland is still busy secreting melatonin, leading to feelings of lethargy and a serious desire to sleep in!

These feelings go away once the sun comes up, only to return in the afternoon when the sun goes down. The pineal gland once again begins secreting melatonin; this time, it’s much earlier in the afternoon when it begins introducing melatonin into the bloodstream as compared to summer when it gets dark later. Ultimately, although your body doesn’t need more sleep, the actions of the pineal gland make you tired earlier in the afternoon and unwilling to get up until later in the morning. The other factor at play is that cold air tends to be better sleeping weather than the hot humid air of summer – it’s comforting to fall asleep under a pile of blankets at night and makes it hard to get out from under them to brave the cold in the morning.

Feel free to sleep in during the winter if it won’t affect your schedule – extra sleep doesn’t hurt. However, there’s no biological requirement for people to get extra hours of sleep during the winter season.

credit to: PinkStock