Can’t Sleep This Winter? 9 Tips to Beat Winter Insomnia

Quick Answer: Winter can make sleep harder for some people, even though the nights are longer. Seasonal changes in daylight, daily routines, activity levels, and sleep habits can affect when you feel sleepy and how well you sleep. Getting more daytime light, keeping a regular wake-up time, staying active, and making a few changes to your evening routine may help.

Winter gives you longer nights, so it seems like sleep should come easier. But for some people, colder and darker days come with the opposite problem: it becomes harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, or feel well-rested in the morning.

You may see this described as winter insomnia, or sleep trouble that appears or gets worse during the winter months. Research involving more than 116,000 adults found that sleep patterns do change with the seasons, although not everyone experiences those changes in the same way. [1]

So if you can’t sleep this winter, can winter itself really be part of the reason?

Can winter cause insomnia?

Winter insomnia is not a separate medical diagnosis, but seasonal changes can affect the body systems and habits that influence sleep. Light is one of the strongest signals your brain uses to regulate your circadian rhythm, or internal body clock. During winter, sunrise comes later, sunset comes earlier, and many people spend much more of the day indoors.

A study of more than 500 people in Seattle found that sleep timing shifted later during fall and winter, with daytime light exposure closely tied to those seasonal changes. [2]

Winter may also change your daily routine in ways that affect sleep, such as:

• Waking later on dark mornings

• Spending more time indoors

• Exercising less

• Taking longer afternoon naps

• Drinking more caffeine when energy dips

While none of these habits directly cause insomnia, together they can affect when you feel sleepy and how easily you fall asleep at night.

If your sleep starts to feel different once winter arrives, these nine tips can help you get your schedule back on track.

Still struggling to sleep this winter? Try Sip2Sleep® tonight.

1. Get daylight earlier in the day

Getting more daylight during winter is one of the simplest ways to support a healthy sleep schedule. Natural light helps your brain recognize when it is daytime, which in turn helps regulate when you start feeling sleepy later in the evening.

You do not need to spend hours outside for it to be useful. A morning walk, coffee on the porch, walking the dog, or stepping outside during a break can all give you more natural light than you would get from normal indoor lighting.

Even on cloudy days, outdoor light is usually much brighter than the light inside your home or office. If mornings are especially dark where you live, getting outside around midday can still help.

2. Keep your wake-up time fairly consistent

Dark winter mornings make sleeping in especially tempting, but big changes in your wake-up time can shift the rest of your sleep schedule with it.

If you start waking two or three hours later on weekends or days off, you may not feel sleepy at your usual bedtime. Over time, that can push your schedule later and make early mornings even harder.

Try to wake up within a similar time range most days rather than aiming for an exact minute. A steady wake-up time gives your body clock a more consistent signal and can make it easier to feel sleepy at a predictable time later that night.

3. Stay active even when it’s cold

Winter often changes how much you move during the day. Shorter daylight hours, cold weather, and fewer outdoor plans can turn an active routine into a much more sedentary one.

Regular physical activity is associated with better sleep, and it does not have to mean an intense workout. Options can include:

• Walking

• Stretching

• Home workouts

• Indoor cycling

• Light strength training

• Simply spending less time sitting

An outdoor walk can be especially useful because it gives you both movement and daylight. If the weather makes that unrealistic, indoor activity is still worthwhile.

4. Be careful with long afternoon naps

Feeling sleepy in the afternoon is common during winter, especially when it gets dark early. A short nap may help on a rough day, but a long or late nap can leave you less sleepy when bedtime comes around.

Your drive for sleep builds gradually while you are awake. When you sleep for a long stretch in the afternoon, some of that pressure is reduced, which can make it harder to fall asleep later.

If you notice a pattern where you nap during the afternoon and then lie awake that night, try shortening the nap or taking it earlier. On days when you are only mildly tired, getting outside or moving around for a while may be enough to help you through the afternoon.

Also Read: This Common Habit Makes Insomnia Worse

5. Don’t make your bedroom too warm

A warm bedroom can feel especially comfortable during winter, but turning the heat up too high may interfere with sleep. Your body temperature naturally drops as you prepare for bed, so heavy blankets, thick pajamas, and a very warm room can leave you overheated during the night.

You do not need to make the bedroom cold. A comfortably cool room is usually enough, and you can adjust your bedding depending on how warm you feel.

Indoor heating can also dry out the air. If you regularly wake with a dry mouth, nose, or throat, it may help to check whether the room feels too warm or dry.

6. Pay attention to afternoon caffeine

Coffee, tea, and other caffeinated drinks can become more appealing in winter, especially when dark afternoons leave you feeling sluggish.

Caffeine can stay in your body for several hours, so something you drink late in the afternoon may still be affecting you when you are trying to fall asleep later that night. If you have been drinking more caffeine since winter started, look at both the amount and the timing.

Sources of caffeine can include:

• Coffee

• Black or green tea

• Energy drinks

• Some soft drinks

• Chocolate

• Certain medications

Moving your last caffeinated drink earlier in the day may be enough to help without giving it up completely.

Also Read: Why Am I Still Tired After 8 Hours of Sleep?

7. Limit alcohol close to bedtime

Alcohol may make you feel sleepy at first, but the sleep that follows is often less restful. As your body processes alcohol during the night, you may wake up more often, spend more time in lighter sleep, or wake up earlier than you planned.

This can become more noticeable during winter holidays, parties, and dinners when drinking happens later than usual. If your sleep is consistently worse after drinking, try having less or finishing earlier in the evening.

8. Dim the lights as bedtime gets closer

Winter can create an odd light pattern where you get too little natural light during the day and plenty of bright artificial light at night.

Bright evening light can delay your sleep timing, especially if your daytime light exposure has already been low. As bedtime gets closer, lower the brightness around the house instead of keeping every overhead light on until you go to bed.

A few simple changes can help:

• Use lamps instead of bright overhead lights

• Lower screen brightness

• Avoid holding a brightly lit phone close to your face right before bed

• Keep the bedroom lighting softer in the hour before sleep

You do not need to avoid every screen or sit in darkness. The goal is simply to create a clearer difference between daytime and nighttime.

9. Keep a simple wind-down routine

Winter evenings can disappear quickly into work, streaming, gaming, social media, chores, or catching up on things you didn’t finish during the day. If you move straight from that activity into bed, you may still feel mentally alert even when you’re tired.

A simple wind-down routine can help slow things down before bed. You might:

• Take a warm shower

• Read for a while

• Listen to quiet music

• Do some gentle stretching

• Write down anything you need to remember for tomorrow

• Get your bedroom ready before you climb into bed

Choose activities you already find relaxing rather than trying to build an elaborate nighttime routine. The aim is to give yourself a quieter stretch of time between the end of your day and sleep.

Also Read: 13 Tips to Fall Asleep Faster

Why am I tired during winter even if I sleep longer?

Sleeping longer does not always mean you will feel more rested. Winter tiredness can be linked with:

• Less daylight during the day

• Lower activity levels

• Spending more time indoors

• Sleeping and waking later than usual

• Longer or more frequent naps

• Seasonal changes in mood

A later sleep schedule can leave mornings feeling especially difficult, even when you spend more hours in bed. Long naps can add to the problem by making you less sleepy at night and pushing bedtime later.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can also change both energy and sleep. SAD is a form of depression that follows a seasonal pattern, and the National Institute of Mental Health notes that winter-pattern SAD can include low energy, difficulty concentrating, social withdrawal, increased appetite, and sleeping more than usual.

SAD is different from occasional winter sleep trouble, but if you notice that both your sleep and your mood change in a clear seasonal pattern every year, talk with your healthcare provider.

Can winter insomnia last all season?

There is no set length of time for sleep problems that show up during winter. For some people, sleep improves as they adjust to seasonal changes, while others may continue to have trouble sleeping for much of the winter.

If the problem continues well beyond the season or becomes a regular pattern, talk with your healthcare provider. Ongoing difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep can have other causes and may need a different approach.

About the author

Dr. Ruchir P. Patel, MD, FACP, is the Medical Director of the Insomnia and Sleep Institute of Arizona and the founder of Sip2Sleep. He is triple board-certified in sleep medicine, obesity medicine, and internal medicine. Dr. Patel is a multi-year Phoenix Magazine Top Doctor and holds the Inspire Excellence designation.

References

1. Scott, H., Lechat, B., Sansom, K., Pinilla, L., Manners, J., Phillips, A. J. K., Nguyen, D. P., Bailly, S., Pepin, J. L., Escourrou, P., Naik, G., Catcheside, P., & Eckert, D. J. (2025). Variations in sleep duration and timing: weekday and seasonal variations in sleep are common in an analysis of 73 million nights from an objective sleep tracker. Sleep, 48(9), zsaf099. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf099

2. Dunster, G. P., Hua, I., Grahe, A., Fleischer, J. G., Panda, S., Wright, K. P., Jr, Vetter, C., Doherty, J. H., & de la Iglesia, H. O. (2023). Daytime light exposure is a strong predictor of seasonal variation in sleep and circadian timing of university students. Journal of pineal research, 74(2), e12843. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpi.12843