Happy solstice, all! Depending on where you live, the winter solstice - the shortest day and longest night of the year - was either yesterday (in the U.S.), today (in Europe and Asia), or won’t be for another six months (bookmark this one, southern-hemisphere friends).
I hope you mark this darkness in some way (if it was yesterday, it’s not too late): light some candles, take a sunrise walk, look at the stars after dinner. The earliest sunsets are behind us, the latest sunrises still on their way for the next few weeks (meteorology is fascinating), but after this, the days will lengthen. The darkness is precious.
Precious, and often tiring. If you’re feeling sleepier at this time of year, you’re not alone. This tiredness is a reminder that despite buildings that keep out the cold and lights that banish the darkness, we are still animals on this planet, still connected to the rising and setting of the sun, still affected by changes in light and dark.
And, for perhaps the first time, a recent study supports what many humans have experienced for millennia: that we need more sleep in winter. This study found that REM sleep - which is essential for learning and memory consolidation and emotion regulation - tended to be about 30 minutes longer in winter than in summer.
This research was conducted with patients who have sleep disorders (a natural population for study), so the question remains as to whether this need for increased winter sleep is specific to people who have disturbed sleep or if it’s true for everyone (I would hypothesize the latter). Interestingly, these research participants live in an urban environment - meaning that there is a lot of light pollution affecting their circadian rhythms; the need for winter sleep might be even stronger for people living in places with less artificial light.
Still, this was the first study to highlight something I’ve seen winter-embracers all over the world do intuitively: allow themselves to sleep more when it’s darkest. Future research might further shed light (ha! - sorry) on our need for increased winter sleep, and the health benefits of shifting our snooze habits with the seasons.
Even if the science remains inconclusive, cultural practice and lived experience all support the benefits of allowing ourselves to rest, prolifically and guiltlessly, during the darkest days of the year. The upcoming holidays are often a time of frenzy: cooking and hosting and traveling and giving and receiving and laughing and crying and celebrating. But they also remain a beautiful time of communal pause. It’s the time of year when the greatest proportion of people unplug, unwind, and take off for the winter holidays. (Healthcare and other essential workers and those who work at restaurants that stay open on Christmas - I salute you. Special thanks to the staff at Nancy Lee’s Pig Heaven in NYC, where my family and I spent many delicious Christmas Eves.)
This is a sacred time: one in which we can indulge in gifts and cookies and family, but also in rest. When we can spend the day in pajamas on the couch, dozing on and off. When we can, if we choose, sleep late, or go to bed early, or cat-nap through the daylight hours.
My holiday wish for you all is that in the midst of whatever and however you are celebrating, you can find some time for rest. That you can allow yourself to be a human animal, living through the darkest days of the year, and delight in the comfort and pleasure of sleep.
Embrace the snooze
At some point over the next two weeks, deliberately make time for sleep: allow yourself to indulge in naps, turn off the alarm clock and snooze, or plan an evening of early bedtime. For those with little ones at home dictating your waking hours, give yourself a pajamas-and-couch-day and see if you can snatch some Zs while the kids watch a movie. Add “sleep” to your holiday to-do list, and embrace the darkness and cultural pause that allows you to snooze a bit more.
I want to hear what you do and how it goes. Share how it feels to lean into sleep over the holidays in the comments below. You can also always reach me directly at kari@karileibowitz.com.
Stay cozy,
Kari
Notes from the slush pile:
In Svalbard, on the first day of Advent, locals flock into the city center with headlamps and torches to welcome Santa back to town - a beautiful tradition of the island’s long nights.
Sleeping a little more in the winter is really the bare minimum in terms of adapting to the season: reindeer have a part of their eye that turns from gold to blue to help them see in winter darkness.
If you struggle with guiltless rest - I relate. For rethinking your relationship to rest, I can’t recommend the book Rest Is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey - aka the Nap Bishop - enough.
I have a handwritten “Here comes the Sun” chart on my fridge that starts with our solstice day sunset time then notes the incrementally later sunsets day by day.
Since my body can’t feel the lengthening day yet , i need to remind myself of the returning light!