The winter months have approached with cold early mornings and dark afternoons. But, after coming back to school from winter break, a wave of tiredness has come upon the students of Wayne Hills. “Seasonal Depression” is the name that teenagers give to their tiredness and sadness during wintertime. Seasonal Depression comes around when the days get shorter and nights get longer, resulting in a chemical change in your brain. These changes are often linked with signs of depression. Let’s see how Seasonal Depression affects the students at Wayne Hills.
As the weather hits a high of only 30 degrees each day, we trade in our summer clothes for sweatshirts and sweatpants. The feeling of stress for tests and assignments starts to rise as the school year goes on. The winter months are very impactful for students all around the country. The shorter days take away the motivation for students to do their schoolwork and study. The struggle to wake up in the morning is common but in the winter months, it becomes even harder. Also, having to walk outside in the cold is what students do not look forward to at 7:00 am. Students have trouble concentrating as many kids come in tired from the night before. The cold winter afternoons cause kids to lay in their bed, scrolling on their phones or taking a nap, making it harder to get tasks done. Seasonal Depression makes the students of Hills too tired and makes it difficult to stay awake for their 6 classes each day.
Students at Hills struggle with Seasonal Depression and it often affects their learning and social life. Junior Yati Patel said, “I usually get seasonal depression around January-March because it feels like longest school wise. The work gets harder and I just feel way more stressed during this time.”
Another junior who is in the middle of studying for SATs and trying to maintain good grades, Emily Caslander, said, “I feel the same way, as soon as it’s not warm out and school starts the stress starts to set in, especially towards the middle of the school year. The only thing that gets me through these cold boring winters is thinking about summer.”
Many students at Hills are counting down the days until speak break. Seasonal Depression takes over students’ lives during the cold months, and all anyone is asking is, “How many days until summer?”