It’s November. Halloween is behind us, the clocks have changed, and suddenly it’s dark before dinner.
For restaurant workers, the change can feel particularly abrupt. Morning crews that start their days before sunrise may soon find themselves heading home in the dark, too. Evening employees can spend nearly all the remaining daylight hours getting ready for work, only to emerge long after sunset.
And depending on where you live, winter can get pretty dark. By late December, Seattle will receive nearly an hour and a half less daylight each day than Los Angeles, simply because of the difference in latitude. (No joke: at the winter solstice, Miami gets a freakin’ two hours and seven minutes more daylight than Seattle.)
It’s enough to make anyone feel like the whole day has disappeared.
But shorter days can affect more than our perception of time. Changes in daylight can influence sleep, energy, and mood, and some people experience a more serious form of seasonal depression known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
For restaurant operators, that’s worth considering. Hospitality is demanding work, and the people responsible for making customers feel comfortable and welcome aren’t immune to the winter blues themselves.
Fortunately, there are some scientifically supported ways to make the darker months a little easier. And restaurant managers can help create opportunities for their teams to take advantage of them.
Make the Most of the Daylight You Have
One of the simplest ways to combat winter sluggishness is also one of the easiest to overlook: get outside while it’s still light.
Natural daylight helps regulate our circadian rhythms, the internal processes that influence when we feel awake or sleepy. When the days get shorter, those rhythms can become disrupted, contributing to changes in sleep and mood.
The National Institute of Mental Health recommends spending time outdoors in daylight as one way to manage mild seasonal mood changes.
And while a bright, sunny afternoon might sound wonderful, you don’t need perfect weather to benefit from being outside. Even an overcast day provides exposure to natural daylight.
For restaurant employees, the challenge is often finding the opportunity.
If an employee is working through the limited daylight hours, consider whether there’s an opportunity to take a break outdoors. Even a brief walk before the dinner rush might provide a welcome change of scenery.
And for employees working evening shifts, finding a little time outside before heading to work can be a worthwhile addition to their routine.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes the first step is simply remembering that daylight is something worth making time for.
Take a Walk. Yes, Even if You’ve Been on Your Feet All Day.
Restaurant employees probably aren’t the first people who need a reminder to move around.
Servers, bartenders, cooks, and dishwashers can spend entire shifts standing, walking, lifting, and moving. By the end of a busy night, the suggestion that they should get more exercise might sound ridiculous.
But there’s an important distinction between physical activity at work and exercise you choose to do for yourself.
At work, movement is usually dictated by someone else’s needs. There’s a ticket waiting, a customer waving, or another task that needs attention. A leisurely walk, by contrast, gives you an opportunity to move at your own pace, enjoy your surroundings, and spend a few minutes without anyone asking you for anything.
Research suggests that distinction may matter. Studies of occupational physical activity have found that being physically active at work doesn’t provide the same mental health benefits associated with recreational exercise.
And the evidence supporting walking is particularly encouraging.
A 2024 review published in The BMJ examined 218 clinical trials involving more than 14,000 participants. Researchers found that walking or jogging, along with several other forms of exercise, produced meaningful reductions in depressive symptoms.
Walking isn’t psychotherapy, and it shouldn’t be presented as a replacement for professional treatment. But the research gives us good reason to take its mental health benefits seriously.
There’s something appealing about how accessible it is, too. You don’t need a gym membership, expensive equipment, or much preparation. You just need a little time and somewhere to go.
For managers, consider making it easier for employees to use an actual break to take a walk. That might mean arranging coverage so someone can get outside for 10 or 15 minutes without worrying about what’s happening back in the kitchen.
A few minutes of movement without the pressure of work might be exactly the break someone needs.
Give Yourself a Little More Day, Without Losing Sleep
Getting enough sleep isn’t always straightforward in the restaurant industry.
Late-night shifts, early mornings, irregular schedules, and the difficulty of winding down after a busy service can all make maintaining a consistent routine challenging.
And winter brings another complication: it’s tempting to sleep through some of the limited daylight that’s available.
For employees whose schedules allow it, getting up a little earlier relative to their shift might create time for a short walk, coffee outside, or simply a more relaxed start to the day.
The important part is not sacrificing sleep to make it happen. Someone finishing work at 2 a.m. shouldn’t feel obligated to wake up at 7 a.m. just to catch the morning light.
Instead, consider whether a more consistent routine could make room for both adequate rest and a little daylight before work.
It’s also worth giving yourself permission to have a lazy day.
Restaurant work can make days off feel like opportunities to catch up on everything that couldn’t get done during the week. But there’s value in occasionally leaving a day relatively unstructured – without errands, obligations, or a long list of things that need accomplishing.
And there’s science behind taking a day to recharge. Multiple studies, including a major analysis involving nearly 100,000 people, have linked a single ‘lazy day’ away from work with better mental well-being. Another study found that even a single day off can significantly reduce both mental stress and physical fatigue.
So give yourself permission to slow down, relax, and occasionally do absolutely nothing productive. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is nothing at all.
Managers can help by keeping schedules as predictable as possible and avoiding unnecessary closing-to-opening turnarounds. Sometimes helping employees take better care of themselves starts with giving them enough time away from work to do it.
When Sunshine Isn’t an Option, Consider a Little Artificial Help
In some parts of the country, even the best intentions can’t overcome the lack of daylight.
Fortunately, there’s a well-established treatment for winter-pattern seasonal affective disorder called bright-light therapy.
Light therapy uses a specially designed lamp to provide an intensity of light far greater than ordinary indoor lighting. It’s been used to treat seasonal depression for decades and has substantial clinical research behind it.
The standard treatment typically involves exposure to a UV-filtered, 10,000-lux light box for roughly 20 to 45 minutes, usually shortly after waking. The precise duration and placement depend on the device and a person’s treatment needs.
And you don’t necessarily need to spend hundreds of dollars.
Affordable options include the Verilux HappyLight Alba and Carex TheraLite Radiance, both sold as 10,000-lux light therapy lamps, often priced around $50 – $60
But be careful when shopping. A product advertised as a sun lamp, full-spectrum light, or mood light isn’t automatically suitable for treating seasonal depression.
Look for a lamp specifically intended for SAD light therapy that provides 10,000 lux at a clearly specified viewing distance and filters out harmful ultraviolet light. That viewing distance matters: a compact lamp advertised at 10,000 lux may only provide that intensity when positioned quite close.
Light therapy isn’t appropriate for everyone. People with bipolar disorder, certain eye conditions, or medications that increase light sensitivity should consult a healthcare professional before trying it.
What about vitamin D?
Reduced winter sunlight can also make it more difficult for our bodies to produce vitamin D, particularly at northern latitudes.
Vitamin D plays an important role in bone health, muscle function, and our nervous and immune systems. A deficiency can contribute to fatigue, muscle weakness, and even changes in mood—all things that can make the darker months feel that much harder.
And there’s encouraging research here, too. A 2025 analysis of 20 clinical trials found that vitamin D supplementation significantly improved depressive symptoms overall, although its effectiveness specifically against seasonal depression remains uncertain.
If you’re not getting enough vitamin D, correcting that deficiency is worthwhile regardless. Fatty fish, fortified foods, and inexpensive vitamin D supplements can all help maintain healthy levels through the darker months.
Don’t Forget to Make Time for Things You Enjoy
There’s another part of managing the winter blues that doesn’t require sunlight, exercise, or special equipment.
Make plans for something enjoyable.
One of the treatments for seasonal affective disorder is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy adapted for SAD. An important element is behavioral activation, which encourages people to deliberately make time for enjoyable and meaningful activities, even when their motivation is low.
It’s an idea that’s easy to recognize during winter. When it’s cold, dark, and miserable outside, staying home can start to feel like the only appealing option.
But maintaining friendships, hobbies, and activities outside of work can be especially valuable during the colder months.
Restaurant employees often have an additional challenge: their schedules don’t necessarily match those of friends and family working conventional hours.
Predictable scheduling and reasonable opportunities to request time off can help employees maintain those connections.
Managers don’t need to organize everyone’s social life. Simply recognizing that employees have lives outside the restaurant, and helping them make room for those lives, is a good place to start.
A Little More Warmth for the People Providing the Hospitality
Not everyone struggles with winter, and the winter blues aren’t the same thing as clinical depression.
For some people, shorter days bring little more than an occasional sluggish afternoon. For others, seasonal affective disorder can cause serious, persistent symptoms that require professional treatment.
Managers shouldn’t be expected to diagnose those conditions or prescribe solutions. Employees experiencing persistent depression deserve access to appropriate professional care, not another workplace wellness assignment.
But there’s plenty that restaurant operators can do.
Giving employees opportunities to get outside, protecting their breaks, maintaining reasonable schedules, and encouraging a healthy separation between work and personal time can all make the darker months a little more manageable.
And these considerations apply to restaurant owners and managers themselves, too.
The restaurant business asks people to deliver warmth, energy, and hospitality regardless of what kind of day they’ve had.
As winter approaches, perhaps one of the best things operators can do is make sure some of that warmth and consideration extends to the people providing it.
We can’t make the winter days any longer. But we can make a little more of the daylight we have – and help each other through the darker hours.