Does the Clocks Going Back Make You Feel Anxious?

This isn't just "the winter blues." Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real thing.

In 2025, the UK's clocks go back by one hour on Sunday, 26th October at 2 am, marking the return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for winter.

For many of us, the gain of an extra hour in bed is completely overshadowed by a familiar, heavy feeling of dread. It’s the official start of the dark evenings, and with it comes that "October Slump" that can settle in for months.

This isn't just "the winter blues." Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real thing. It's a recognised condition that can leave you feeling low, irritable, exhausted, and profoundly unmotivated.

But have you ever felt that your reaction is... bigger than everyone else's? That the darkness triggers a much deeper anxiety, sadness, or sensitivity that you can't just shake off?

You are not overreacting. There is a very real reason this happens.

Do you Know the Real Reason It Feels So Hard?

It's not just the lack of sunlight. For our nervous system, the sudden, sharp loss of evening light is an ancient, primal signal. It's an alarm bell that tells our body to retreat, hibernate, and be on alert for danger.

This is why it's so hard: this feeling of forced retreat, low-level threat, and isolation can feel very similar to difficult periods from our past.

If you've ever felt unsafe, isolated, or trapped, the dark evenings can act as a powerful, unconscious trigger. The season isn't creating your anxiety; it's waking up the old anxiety, trauma, and sensitivities that were already there, stored in your nervous system.

How This "Seasonal Trigger" Affects Your Life

When our nervous system is on high alert, it drains our resources, and this impacts every part of our world.

• At Work: That 4pm darkness hits, and your focus and motivation can fall off a cliff. Projects you'd normally handle can feel overwhelming, and that "high-functioning anxiety" you manage to keep a lid on can tip over into feeling like you're on the edge of burnout.

• At Home: You may feel more irritable, less patient, and have a deep desire to just 'shut down' and be alone. This can put a real strain on your home life, as you have less emotional energy to give to the people you love.

• At School (for Young People): This is a huge one. For children and teens, this period can be when we see a spike in school refusal, overwhelming anxiety about homework, and social withdrawal. Their developing systems are especially sensitive to this seasonal jolt.

How EMDR Can Help You Heal the Root Cause

So, what can we do? We need to be realistic. As much as we'd like to, we can't bring the sun back for you.

But we can be here for you and your family. And we can help you change how your body responds to the trigger.

This is where a therapy like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) can be life-changing.

EMDR is a therapy that doesn't just treat the symptom (the seasonal low mood). It helps you heal the root cause—the old memory that the darkness is waking up. It’s a specialist therapy designed to help your brain to finally process these "stuck" memories and sensitivities.

Through a gentle, structured process, EMDR helps your brain to file the memory away properly, so it loses its painful emotional charge.

The result? The trigger loses its power. The dark evenings are just dark evenings again, not a four-month-long emotional flashback. You feel more resilient, calmer, and more like yourself, even in the depths of winter.

You Don't Have to Just Endure It Until Spring

If you feel like you just have to "white-knuckle it" until March, please know that you don't. If you are dreading the clocks going back, it might be the very sign that your nervous system is ready to heal.

I specialise in this work at Explore Heal Grow. If you are ready to stop just surviving the winter and start feeling like yourself again, I invite you to get in touch.

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