The 'Hibernation Instinct' Is Real — This Is the Psychology Behind the Desire to Hunker Down When the Weather Starts to Shift

One evening you realize you're reaching for a blanket before you've even thought about it. The lamps are going on earlier; there's a chill in the air, and the evening that might have stretched outside a few weeks ago is now happening indoors. It's that familiar desire to hunker down in our homes that we often describe as wanting to hibernate.

We don't hibernate in the literal sense, of course. But as the weather and daylight change, we may start using our homes differently without really thinking about it. And those changes in how we're living can tell us something about what we're looking for from our homes.

So before changing anything for autumn, I'd start by asking: what do you need your home to give you as the season changes?

Why Are We Drawn to Hunkering Down in Our Homes?

Wanting to hunker down can mean very different things. We might be looking for comfort, warmth, connection, or time on our own. None of those needs belong exclusively to autumn.

What changes are the conditions we're living in. Research into seasonality suggests that changes in daylight, temperature, weather, and our routines can all play a part in how we think, feel, and behave. It isn't a single universal ‘hibernation instinct’, and we won't all respond to those changes in the same way.

We can start to see our own response in the small ways our behaviour at home changes. A living room that was part of life spilling out into the garden during summer can become somewhere we now spend the whole evening.

You might find yourself choosing the same chair each night because it's tucked into a corner, close to the fire or beside a lamp, somewhere you can have a little time to yourself. Or perhaps you find yourself lingering in the kitchen while something cooks on the stove, drawn to the warmth of the room.

Those small changes matter because our relationship with our homes can change with the season too. We experience our rooms at different times of day, under different light and potentially for much longer stretches of time.

So pay attention to how you're actually living in yours. Where are you naturally choosing to spend your time, and what are you seeking out when you're there? The clues can be in the things you find yourself doing without really thinking about them.

How Can Your Home Support the Desire to Hunker Down?

What you notice can give you a starting point for thinking about what might need to change at home. You might find yourself craving greater physical warmth, seeking out more light, wanting to spend more time gathered around the table with other people, or looking for something to lift a gray day.

For me, one of the first things I notice when the days start getting shorter is how much I seek out light. During the day, I'll make the most of the natural daylight. Then, as the daylight starts to fade in the late afternoon, I'll put the lamps on. As the evening progresses, I'll light candles too and prefer warmer light to bright overhead lighting, which I find too intense.

It's also worth looking again at the colors you already have. As the daylight changes and the lamps come on earlier, you're experiencing them under different light and at different times of day. A color you loved on a bright summer afternoon may look quite different when you're sitting with it for several hours on an autumn evening, so look at your colors at the times you're actually using the room.

The Best Colors for Hunkering Down at Home

I also look at color in terms of what I might need from the space. Understanding colors' psychological qualities can help you think about what you choose in relation to what you're seeking. And the nuance matters. Changing the depth and intensity of a color changes how we experience it.

You might be drawn to deeper, richer colors as the season changes, or you may find yourself wanting lighter colors around you as the daylight diminishes, so this isn't about everyone reaching for the colors traditionally associated with autumn simply because the season has arrived.

Here are just a few examples of how that might translate into the colours you choose.

Red

If it's physical warmth you're seeking, think about that moment when you come in from the cold and all you want is to feel warm again. Decorating with red relates to the physical and can create a psychological sense of warmth, even though the temperature in the room hasn't changed. You might be drawn to the richness of brick red or oxblood, a livelier tomato red or a softer watermelon red.

Soft Pink

For something more nurturing, there's pink. I often say that if cuddles were a color, they'd be pink. Pink is red, but its softer quality can bring a more nurturing experience of physical comfort. Wrapping yourself in a soft pink chunky cable knit throw can add to that feeling of being warm and cocooned.

Orange

As we start spending more time together indoors, decorating with orange can bring sociability, fun, and joy into the experience, from everyone gathering in the kitchen while dinner is cooking to friends lingering around the table long after dinner has finished.

You might bring in rust or burnt orange through cushions or table linen, something as simple and seasonal as pumpkins, or, if you want something livelier, persimmon.

Yellow

And if the shorter, grayer days leave you wanting a lift, yellow can support feelings of optimism, bringing some of the cheeriness that can feel particularly welcome when the days are gray. You might prefer the softness of butter or primrose yellow, a richer golden yellow, or something brighter and sunnier.

I notice this in my own home. When the days become grayer, I find myself buying sunflowers. Having that burst of yellow in the room feels a little like bringing the sunshine indoors when there isn't much of it outside.

Before deciding what to change, come back to what you've noticed about yourself. Are you looking for more physical warmth, more light, more connection, or something to give you a lift? Supporting that might be as simple as bringing out a favorite textured throw, moving a lamp closer to where you now find yourself sitting, or changing the way the furniture is arranged.

How Else Can Your Space Help You Hunker Down?

There's another thing to consider when you're spending more time indoors: the same room may need to support very different parts of your day.

If you work at the dining table or have a desk in the corner of your living room, for example, at ten o'clock in the morning you may need that space to help you concentrate and stay focused. By eight o'clock in the evening, you may want the same room to help you switch off, settle down for the evening or spend time with other people.

This way of starting with the person, what they need from a space and what needs to happen there is what I call my 'Behaviour First' approach. I then consider how the colors, lighting, and other design choices can support the way that person needs to use and experience the space.

So as the days become shorter, notice the little changes you're making, whether you're following the daylight around your home, pulling a blanket around you in the evening, or, like me, coming home with a bunch of sunflowers on a gray day. Understanding what you're seeking from your home gives you a much better starting point for deciding what, if anything, needs to change.