--- title: Seasonal Affective Disorder Can Happen in the Summer description: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) typically strikes in winter, but some people get seasonal depression in the summer. Here's what to know. canonical: https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-05T14:57:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:24.559Z article:section: Health og:title: Seasonal Depression Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter og:description: Here's what to know about summertime sadness og:url: https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed631315e49e7a3/6989324b4ee262eacf312046/woman-looking-through-window.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5268 og:image:height: 2963 og:image:alt: Woman Looking Through Window og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Seasonal Depression Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter twitter:description: Here's what to know about summertime sadness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed631315e49e7a3/6989324b4ee262eacf312046/woman-looking-through-window.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Seasonal Depression Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter. Here's What to Know About Summertime Sadness > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8985b10b-34ef-4f5e-a6a5-6f5d42b7bb50&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8985b10b-34ef-4f5e-a6a5-6f5d42b7bb50&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=8985b10b-34ef-4f5e-a6a5-6f5d42b7bb50&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8985b10b-34ef-4f5e-a6a5-6f5d42b7bb50&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Just One Hour of Exercise a Week May Help Prevent Depression [Watch (HLS stream): Just One Hour of Exercise a Week May Help Prevent Depression](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ZPHQ5lO.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2017-10-05. Regular exercise may prevent many cases of future depression, according to a new Australian study, and researchers say that as little as one hour a week can make a real difference_  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 5, 2018 2:57 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 5, 2018 2:57 PM UTC As a kid, Krista Golden loved to play outside in her family’s yard when the weather turned nice. But by her mid-twenties, something changed. “As I’ve gotten older, I’d rather be by myself and stay in the house during the summer,” says Golden, who is 43 and lives in Ohio. “I just accepted it as, ‘This is me.'” Last winter, Golden learned that there was a reason for her summertime sadness: Her therapist told her she likely had [seasonal affective disorder](http://time.com/4243319/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad-light-therapy/) (SAD). But unlike most people with SAD, who experience dips in mood and energy during the cold, dark months of winter, Golden’s symptoms emerge during the sunny summer months. “I thought there might be a reverse seasonal affective disorder, but I thought maybe that was something made up,” Golden says. “I didn’t know if it actually existed. How could you be depressed by too much sunlight?” That’s a question experts are still trying to answer. Whenever it occurs, SAD can be a difficult condition to diagnose. It’s defined as [major depression](http://time.com/5271244/major-depression-diagnosis-spike/) that follows a seasonal pattern for at least two years, [according to the National Institutes for Mental Health](https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/seasonal-affective-disorder/index.shtml). But since it’s a subtype of depression, rather than a completely distinct condition, it can be hard to tell whether symptoms such as dips in mood and energy, sleep issues, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, changes in appetite and difficulty concentrating point to SAD or another type of depression. It can also be difficult to distinguish between true SAD and the less severe “winter blues.” While classic winter SAD is confusing, summer SAD is even trickier. By [most estimates](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10721866), between 5% and 10% of the U.S. population experiences SAD. But only a small portion of Americans, somewhere around 1% of the total population, have flare-ups in the summertime, says Dr. Norman Rosenthal, [a SAD expert](https://www.normanrosenthal.com/) and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Why this happens isn’t well understood, says Dr. Prakash Thomas, a psychiatrist at Yale-New Haven Hospital and the mental health treatment facility [Newport Academy](https://www.newportacademy.com/) in Connecticut. “There’s a number of hypotheses, including circadian rhythm shifts and neurotransmitter dysregulation,” Thomas says, adding that there may be a genetic component as well. Summer and winter SAD have a lot to do with your internal clock. [Winter SAD likely occurs](http://time.com/278/can-winter-really-make-you-sick-the-truth-about-seasonal-affective-disorder/) as a result of waning sunlight, which may throw off a number of light-mediated biological processes, from sleep-wake cycles to mood and energy regulation. But in summer, similar functions may be disrupted by the abundance of sunlight, or by the heat that goes along with it, Rosenthal says. Excess light can also cause agitation, he adds. A modern phenomenon may also exacerbate the effects of summer SAD: a fear of missing out, or FOMO. “Misery likes company, and in the winter you’ve got a lot of company,” Rosenthal says. But in the summer, “everybody’s at the beach, they’re having a blast, they’re doing all these things, and if you’re feeling bad, you really feel like an outsider. Feeling isolated, feeling left out, is a [major stress](http://time.com/5159867/adult-friendships-loneliness/), challenge and psychological downer.” **MORE**: [A New Hope For Depression](http://time.com/4876098/new-hope-for-depression/) The two conditions also come with unique symptoms — side effects so different, it’s possible that calling both conditions SAD is actually a misnomer, Rosenthal says. While winter SAD sufferers tend to sleep and eat more, effectively hibernating through the season, Rosenthal says that people with summer SAD “are likely to have [insomnia](http://time.com/5097840/how-to-fall-asleep-faster/), need less sleep or get less sleep, and they are likely to eat less and lose weight. They are often agitated instead of being lethargic. Curiously, and also disturbingly, they [express more suicidal ideas](http://time.com/5279029/suicide-rates-rising-study/).” Insomnia is a major symptom of Golden’s summer SAD — one that makes it difficult to find the motivation to carry out day-to-day tasks, like washing dishes. “There’s so much light, and it just feels like I’ve been robbed of sleep because of it,” she says. “I eventually do fall asleep, but it just feels like I don’t get enough sleep at all. Once the weather turns colder, or once it starts getting darker, I fall asleep easily.” Rosenthal says cognitive behavioral therapy can help those with summer SAD, as can staying indoors during the middle of the day and keeping cool with the help of cold showers, swimming and air conditioning. He also says he often increases patients’ medication doses in the springtime, in hopes of staving off symptoms before summer hits in full force. Golden says her therapist recommends afternoon naps and a higher daily dose of her antidepressant during the summer months. The hope is that therapies like these will stop her from feeling “very odd and out of whack” whenever the season rolls around, and eliminate her dread at the turn of the calendar. “This isn’t just me being petty or wanting to just keep to myself or be a little Hobbit,” she says. “It’s nice to know that it is real, and I’m not alone in this. I just wish other people would be able to understand it as well.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/"},"headline":"Seasonal Depression Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter. Here's What to Know About Summertime Sadness","datePublished":"2018-06-05T14:57:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:24.559Z","description":"Here's what to know about summertime sadness","url":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed631315e49e7a3/6989324b4ee262eacf312046/woman-looking-through-window.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaed631315e49e7a3/6989324b4ee262eacf312046/woman-looking-through-window.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman Looking Through Window","caption":"Woman Looking Through Window","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/","name":"Seasonal Depression Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter. Here's What to Know About Summertime Sadness"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Just One Hour of Exercise a Week May Help Prevent Depression","description":"Regular exercise may prevent many cases of future depression, according to a new Australian study, and researchers say that as little as one hour a week can make a real difference","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6ZPHQ5lO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-05T18:49:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ZPHQ5lO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/","duration":"PT1M56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5287625/summer-seasonal-affective-disorder/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```