January Blues Are Real: How to Actually Prepare for Them
The post-holiday mood crash isn't weakness. It's predictable psychology. Here's what causes January blues and how to prepare before they hit.
December is a high. Lights everywhere. Social gatherings. Time off work. Food, gifts, celebration.
Then January arrives.
The lights come down. The gatherings end. Work resumes. The credit card bill arrives. The days are short and cold. The holiday anticipation that carried you through November and December is gone, with nothing comparable on the horizon.
This is January blues. And it’s not weakness or ingratitude. It’s predictable psychology.
Why January Hits Harder
Several factors converge to make January uniquely difficult:
Post-anticipation letdown. Humans are wired to enjoy anticipation almost as much as the event itself. Research on anticipatory pleasure shows that looking forward to something activates reward circuits in your brain. December provides weeks of anticipation. January provides almost none.
Social withdrawal. December is unusually social. January is unusually isolating. The contrast is jarring, especially for people whose mental health depends on connection.
Return to routine. Time off disrupts your autopilot patterns. Returning to routine requires effort that feels heavier after rest. The work that felt manageable in November feels crushing in January.
Seasonal factors. In the Northern Hemisphere, January has the least daylight. Reduced light exposure affects serotonin and melatonin, contributing to lower mood and energy.
Failed resolutions. By mid-January, most resolutions have already failed. The optimism of January 1st has become the self-criticism of January 15th.
Financial stress. Holiday spending catches up. Credit card statements arrive. The fun of December becomes the stress of January.
Any one of these would affect mood. Together, they create a perfect storm.
The Difference from SAD
January blues overlap with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) but aren’t identical.
SAD is a clinical condition with symptoms that persist throughout winter and significantly impair functioning. It affects about 5% of adults and often requires professional treatment.
January blues are a temporary mood dip that most people experience to some degree. The symptoms are milder and typically lift by February as routines stabilize and days lengthen.
If your symptoms are severe, persistent, or interfering with basic functioning, talk to a professional. If they’re uncomfortable but manageable, the strategies below can help.
How to Actually Prepare
The key word is “prepare.” Most advice about January blues comes after they’ve hit. By then, you’re already in the low mood that makes action difficult.
Here’s how to prepare before January arrives:
1. Schedule something to look forward to
The post-holiday letdown comes from having nothing on the horizon. Fix this by scheduling something, anything, to anticipate.
It doesn’t have to be big. A dinner with friends in late January. A weekend trip in February. A movie you’ve been waiting for. A project you’re excited to start.
Research on anticipation shows that having something to look forward to improves current mood even if the event is weeks away. The anticipation itself is the intervention.
Schedule before January arrives. Your December self will make plans. Your January self will be glad they’re already on the calendar.
2. Expect the dip
Knowing January blues are coming reduces their power. When you expect a mood dip, you don’t interpret it as personal failure or evidence that something is deeply wrong.
“I’m feeling low because it’s mid-January and that’s normal” is less distressing than “I’m feeling low and I don’t know why.”
Affect labeling, naming what you’re feeling and why, reduces emotional intensity. Speaking this out loud works even better than thinking it.
3. Protect your social calendar
January’s instinct is to hibernate. Don’t let it.
Social connection is protective against low mood even when you don’t feel like socializing. The effort of leaving the house often pays off once you’re actually with people.
Before January arrives, schedule recurring social activities. Make them hard to cancel. Your future self will want to skip them. Don’t let them.
4. Address light exposure
Reduced daylight affects neurotransmitter production. You can partially compensate:
- Get outside during daylight hours, even briefly
- Consider a light therapy lamp (10,000 lux, used in the morning)
- Keep indoor spaces well-lit during the day
This won’t eliminate January blues, but it addresses one contributing factor.
5. Lower your expectations for January
January is not the month for ambitious new projects, major life changes, or peak productivity.
The fresh start effect provides motivation at the start of the month, but it fades quickly. If you’ve set unrealistic goals, you’ll fail at them right when you’re most vulnerable to feeling bad.
Set January goals that are achievable even on low-energy days. Build systems for February. Let January be about survival and gradual reentry.
6. Process before and during
Voice journaling is particularly useful during difficult periods because it takes almost no energy while providing significant benefit.
Before January: Reflect on how past Januarys have gone. What made them hard? What helped? This surfaces patterns you can address proactively.
During January: Spend 2 minutes each day speaking how you actually feel. Not to fix anything. Just to acknowledge it. Suppressed emotions intensify. Spoken emotions discharge.
This practice takes almost nothing when you’re depleted but prevents emotions from building up unexamined.
The Emotional Calendar Pattern
January blues follow a predictable pattern. So does the rest of your year.
Your emotional calendar has rhythms you might not consciously recognize. Anniversary reactions to past events. Seasonal shifts in mood. Monthly patterns tied to work or family.
Tracking your emotional patterns over time reveals these rhythms. Once you see the pattern, you can prepare for it rather than being surprised each year.
January might be hard for you. Or it might be March, when work stress peaks. Or September, when summer ends. The specific timing matters less than recognizing that these patterns exist and can be anticipated.
What Not to Do
Some common January advice backfires:
Don’t set ambitious resolutions. The combination of fresh-start motivation and winter depletion is a setup for failure. Start smaller than feels meaningful.
Don’t isolate. The instinct to hibernate is strong but counterproductive. Force yourself to maintain some social contact even when you don’t feel like it.
Don’t compare to December. December mood was artificially elevated by lights, celebration, and anticipation. Comparing January to December makes January feel worse than it is. Compare to baseline, not to holiday highs.
Don’t dismiss the difficulty. “I shouldn’t feel this way” adds shame to an already difficult period. You feel how you feel. Naming it helps more than judging it.
When to Seek Help
January blues typically lift within a few weeks as routines stabilize and days lengthen. If your symptoms persist beyond February, worsen over time, or significantly impair your ability to function, talk to a mental health professional.
Signs that warrant professional attention:
- Persistent low mood for most of the day, most days
- Loss of interest in things you usually enjoy
- Changes in sleep or appetite that don’t improve
- Difficulty functioning at work or in relationships
- Thoughts of self-harm or hopelessness
These may indicate SAD, depression, or another condition that benefits from professional treatment. There’s no virtue in struggling alone when help is available.
Preparing Now
If you’re reading this before January, you have time to prepare:
- Schedule something to look forward to in late January or February
- Make social plans that are hard to cancel
- Set realistic expectations for what January will look like
- Stock up on tools that help (light lamp, comfort foods, easy exercise options)
- Reflect on past Januarys to identify what specifically makes them hard for you
If you’re reading this during January, you can still:
- Lower expectations for the rest of the month
- Schedule something to anticipate
- Speak how you’re feeling rather than suppressing it
- Reach out to someone, even briefly
January blues are real. They’re also temporary and predictable. With preparation, they don’t have to blindside you.
The low will pass. Until it does, be gentle with yourself.