Hibernation Mode

MsCzar

It's a real thing.

paperpudding

are we debating whether it is a real thing or not?

what exactly are we referring to - there is hibernation mode of bears etc and hibernation mode seems a computer term similar to sleep in computer functions - but nobody would dispute those are real things.

I couldnt find anything about hibernation mode in terms of diet, calories, weight loss,fitness or any MFP related topic.

???

MsCzar

lol I swear there is a people version and every January I've got it bad! In January, I can set an alarm for 9am, nod off until 11, have four cups of coffee and then have an afternoon nap. I'm never hungry. I've got zero energy and that warm bed calls my name all day long. I know it will all go away a few weeks from now and I'll be back to myself. But for now, I'm in hibernation mode. It's real.

cmriverside

That sounds a lot like Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter blues, a depression some people have in the winter.

How are your Vitamin D levels? I had SAD for decades until I started taking daily Vitamin D supplements. It made a huge difference.

penguinmama87

cmriverside wrote: »

That sounds a lot like Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter blues, a depression some people have in the winter.

How are your Vitamin D levels? I had SAD for decades until I started taking daily Vitamin D supplements. It made a huge difference.

I think it can be fine and normal provided it isn't extreme. I do take Vitamin D but I'm fine with a little hibernating in the winter and more activity in the summer.

AnnPT77

SAD light seems to help me a little. Ditto for keeping up exercise (even if I don't feel like it). Winter is usually gloomy here (often overcast), in addition to the shorter days. Seems like I perk up a little when there's sun, but it's all subjective, so who knows?

mtaratoot

I get it in the wintertime too. It could be more debilitating, but once I recognized what it was, that took away some of its power.

I am also supplementing with Vitamin D as per suggestion from my physician from testing done for a few years. I'm sure that doesn't hurt. Getting outside helps immensely. They (whoever they are) say there's no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. Where I live, it often starts raining in September and stops in July. Oh, we get sun breaks.... Today was cold and sunny; perfect time for a long walk to get some NATURAL vitamin D.

One thing I've noticed this winter; my seasonal challenge is so much less of an issue than any year in my recent memory. Or distant memory for that matter. I attribute much of this to a significantly reduced stress level in addition to the ability to be outside every day. I am about to start my ninth month after retiring from a career that was really good the first 15 or 18 years and really awful the last six or eight. Leadership change is what the issue was. Having that out of my life has changed me for the better in so many ways. February is often the worst, so I'm not positive that things really are all rainbows, although I did see a nice rainbow yesterday because... I was outside! A good raincoat, rain pants, rubber boots, and a hat gets me out even when the sunshine is of the liquid variety. It seems to help me. Quite a bit actually.

Used to be I'd say things like, "If I could go to sleep near the end of November and wake up at the end of February, things would be better." Well, this fall and winter have really been better. I don't have any other explanation than getting rid of that stress and getting some dysfunctional leadership out of my life.

MsCzar

Thanks all! Simply moving is the biggest challenge right now. I take vitamin D daily along with a B complex supplement. Not feeling depressed, merely extremely lethargic; I keep promising myself I'll work out tomorrow. 🙄

I posted this in Debates because I swear metabolism rates can change in winter. The old CICO formula flies right out the window in January and returns in March.

penguinmama87

MsCzar wrote: »

Thanks all! Simply moving is the biggest challenge right now. I take vitamin D daily along with a B complex supplement. Not feeling depressed, merely extremely lethargic; I keep promising myself I'll work out tomorrow. 🙄

I posted this in Debates because I swear metabolism rates can change in winter. The old CICO formula flies right out the window in January and returns in March.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if less sunlight affects activity/the CO portion. Add colder temperatures (same amount of sunlight in October-December, but then it's not so cold) and it makes a lot of sense to me. I bet DST plays a role in it, too, but I also just don't like DST, and that's not part of the thread, so I will leave it at that.

For me, it's all a part of seasonal living as long as I'm not depressed and still getting outside regularly as @mtaratoot mentions. It's not as much as I will in the summer, for sure, but the fresh air is still good as long as I'm wrapped up warmly enough!

mtaratoot

@penguinmama87

Is despise too strong a word for how I feel about daylight saving time? Maybe. I very much dislike it. I don't mind that it's light out until after 20:00 in the summer; almost to 21:00. I also don't mind that our star doesn't wake me quite so early in the morning that time of year.

I am VERY disappointed that the current inertia seems to be towards moving to permanent daylight saving time. We tried that before, and it didn't work. I actually think that despise is NOT too strong a word for how I feel about changing the clock twice a year, so if I have to be on the "wrong" time all year, it's still better than the change.

When I worked, I was a year-round bike commuter. My work day started at 07:00. My morning commute was in the dark far too much of the year. Mid-winter it was also dark on my commute home. Then, just as it was starting to be light during my morning commute... BOOM. It was dark again. I don't think proponents of year-round DST realize how awful they'll feel when the sun doesn't rise until nearly 09:00 in mid-winter. I guess if a person works in a windowless building, they won't notice. People say they like the sunlight at the end of the day. Whatever.

Standard time makes sense. It lets things run "on time" from place to place. But time really is based on our sun. Noon is when the sun is directly overhead. Time zones mean that noon can be offset by a half hour either way depending how far east or west you are in the time zone. Adding an extra hour to that is just ridiculous. Ditching daylight saving time forever would eliminate that twice a year clock change (and all the risks that come along with it) and help keep our "clock time" closer to the real "solar time."

Ask me how I really feel. And I'm not sorry for the slight hijack. Hawaii and Arizona have it right. No DST.

AnnPT77

MsCzar wrote: »

Thanks all! Simply moving is the biggest challenge right now. I take vitamin D daily along with a B complex supplement. Not feeling depressed, merely extremely lethargic; I keep promising myself I'll work out tomorrow. 🙄

I posted this in Debates because I swear metabolism rates can change in winter. The old CICO formula flies right out the window in January and returns in March.

There's some research on this, but it seems mixed, based on casual reading. (Maybe someone who actually knows something will chime in here, I hope.)

I think from past posts you maybe live somewhere warm-ish in Winter - is that true? (Compared to me. We can hit -20F sometimes, and below freezing is standard fare.)

Some studies suggest that humans' BMR/RMR may go up in Winter in colder climates for obvious reasons. (I assume that'd be mediated by how much time they spend in very warm indoor places.) Other studies see no effect in free-living conditions in a developed-world context for people in cold climates.

For me, partly as a result of living in a cold climate (palm of Michigan USA mitten), my NEAT goes down in Winter, and (subjectively) my mood and energy level are affected by shorter days, and the (literal) tendency here to Winter gloom for days and weeks at a time. That in turn affects my NEAT in diverse ways. TDEE is down as a consequence, and I do rest/sleep more. (Some animals that don't hibernate experience seasonal torpor. Is this human torpor?)

Has your thyroid been tested lately? I haven't read much about this specifically, but some studies suggest that thyroid function can vary seasonally, and (speaking as someone severely hypo, but now properly medicated) low thyroid hormone for sure can have the kind of symptoms you're reporting.

Could you be borderline hypo, and slipping over the line subjectively in a seasonal pattern? There are some signs that simply being inside the normal TSH range can be subjectively not quite good enough for some hypo people - they need to be at the low end to feel decent. That's without even getting into T3/T4 conversion issues, where TSH can be OK but there's still a problem. A lot of doctors seem to just test TSH, not the full panel.

This study is sort of interesting, talking about the interweaving of lifestyle and physiological functions with seasonality, but I don't know how representative it is:

https://www.pinniped.net/leonard_2014_ajhb.pdf

I'd observe that they do seem to see differences in T3/T4, and if one's thyroid test is TSH only, that might not show up. From that specific study:

Thyroid hormone levels showed the greatest and most
consistent pattern of seasonal changes. Each of the four
age- and sex-specific groups had large and significant
(P < 0.05) declines in fT3 and fT4 levels during the winter.
Conversely, TSH levels showed modest increases during
the winter across all age/sex groups, but none of these
changes were statistically significant.

The overall conclusion seems to be that behavioral factors (that vary seasonally) have more impact in that study population than the biometric/physiological stuff, though . . . and it's hard to tell which direction the causation arrows point, too, I guess.

But you're not Yakut, and neither am I. I'm also betting neither of us lives subsistence-style in Siberia.

Yes, I'm an unnaturally curious person. 🤣

MsCzar

I'll be having my annual blood profile done in a few weeks. Winters here are definitely cold, but not quite Minnesota USA cold. I take as further "proof" the way we who regularly experience real winters can be perfectly comfortable in a tee and hoodie at the same temperatures those from more tropical climes would burrow into thick coats, gloves,hat and scarf and still complain about being cold.

paperpudding

Chiming in with my 2c worth (now that I understand the topic )

I find winter a bit harder to be regularly active - is cold and dark after work, cant take dog for a long walk, also more outdoor walks prevented by rain.

But winter isnt extreme where I live compared to Northern hemisphere and places with snow and my work hours are unchanged and I play indoor sport and there are things I like about winter like following football - so I dont find myself any different mood wise.

PS I like DST and it is a permanant thing where I live.

No point in it for Hawaii being close to the equator

Likewise northern states of Australia - so some states here , like mine, do it and others don't.

PS should we split this and debate DST in another thread? or it is all connected?

MsCzar

paperpudding wrote: »

PS should we split this and debate DST in another thread? or it is all connected?

I think it's connected. In July, I easily rise at dawn with lots of energy and without the need for an alarm clock. Midwinter has me snoozing and buried under warm blankets until well after 10a.m. and staying awake into the wee hours.

penguinmama87

@mtaratoot, you're my people. You summed up my feelings about DST perfectly. Everything about how we keep time revolves around when noon is; when you shift it an hour, you no longer have the same frame of reference. It would make more sense to just shift actual schedules, rather than when noon is (seems kind of arrogant, IMO).

(That said, I do understand the usefulness of, say, time zones rather than every town having their own local noon like we did in the time before train schedules.)

To bring it back to the thread, one reason I brought DST up to begin with is that I just really dislike the notion that somehow we should all be at an equal level of performance every single day and we all need to conform to that and do our best to ignore that the sun, the big gas ball on which our very existence depends, isn't always in the same place in the sky.**** It feels very "humans as machine cogs" to me. Human-as-machine can be a useful analogy, but I think if that's the essential way we define ourselves it's not good for us. I live in a place with four very distinct seasons and my life adjusts to those seasons, from my work and assorted hobbies (I'm a wannabe homesteader) to the foods I eat and the clothes I wear. To me, this is natural and good. In my own life experience, the harder I try to defy that kind of stuff, the unhappier I am. I'm a creature of habit and routine but not 24/7/365 routines. That way lies madness!

****ETA: Yes, I know that it's more accurately our relationship in space to the sun, etc. etc. I couldn't find a pretty, poetical way to say it

ByteLily

MsCzar wrote: »

lol I swear there is a people version and every January I've got it bad! In January, I can set an alarm for 9am, nod off until 11, have four cups of coffee and then have an afternoon nap. I'm never hungry. I've got zero energy and that warm bed calls my name all day long. I know it will all go away a few weeks from now and I'll be back to myself. But for now, I'm in hibernation mode. It's real.

Have you tried a light therapy lamp. It's helping me. I use a verilux with adjustable brightness and adjustable tone so it's not blaring me with the full strength. It helps.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I think it becomes very valuable to get outside midday in cold climates in winter. I swim in an atrium on such days-- fantastic! Become a winter warrior and take a walk no matter how cold it is! I've become a devotee of hand warmers. (Buy in bulk!) It really perks up your mood.