As part of my research into my post about New Year’s Resolutions (and how to keep them), I stumbled upon a story that bolstered my resolve to get more sleep. I live in Maine, where the winters are cold. And long. And dark. I love it because it helps me observe a natural, seasonal rhythm.

It forces me to look inward and stoke the wood stove to keep warm. So I segregate my long list of projects into “things I do when the days are long and warm” (garden, build things, fix things, harvest) and “things I do when they’re cold and short” (plan the garden, read, sew, craft, cook).

Hibernation works for me.

The story I read was by Carol Venolia, an eco-architect from California, where folks might miss the seasonal cues that I can’t ignore. Even so, she theorized that modern life’s demand to move at full throttle—even when the sun says it’s time to slow down—could be a cause for Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. The telltale depression that most doctors treat with a daily dose of bright light could be avoided if we stopped pretending that it’s summer all the time.

Perhaps that means observing rituals at this time of year, like lighting a candle at mealtimes, to enlighten the darker, quieter days of winter. Or it might mean clearing our social calendars so we’re not out four nights a week. We could simply carve out time at home, where we let ourselves sleep more, think more and rest up for the busy, sunshine-filled seasons ahead.

The wise old Eastern white pines that tower over my house are evergreen. But if you look closely, you can’t help but notice that they shed up to half of their needles each fall. Scaling back conserves energy, protects them from winter winds, and makes room for a flush of new growth in the spring.

I’ll never forget the way one of my boys’ teachers described the sometimes uncontrollable surge of energy you can see in children, once the weather starts to warm again. “It’s like the sap rising in the maple trees,” she said last March. “They can feel the change.”

Good thing we’ve been hibernating all winter.