What Psychology Says About the August Blues

What is it about August?

There is no other time of year that holds such a capacity to evoke sentimental feelings. Realistically we know that we’re no longer condemned to the school year, and there is very little practical difference between July and September. Still, the heaviness remains.

The end of something almost intangible might be the very thing that makes August so bittersweet. When we’re young, summer seems to last forever, it is a safe place to hide from responsibility. We take it for granted, and then we grow up. The transitional weeks at the end of summer trigger old anxieties.

This phenomenon of a kind of extended period of “Sunday scaries” is not uncommon. It’s been discussed by psychologists and given its own name: the August blues. 

People report feeling a multitude of emotions, including melancholy, anxiety, and a generalized sense of nostalgia. For many, there is a deeper sense that they haven’t made the most of their time and that summer has ended too quickly. It’s one of the cruel ironies of growing older: the more life we live, the less novel each individual day feels. 

There is at least one clinician who has dedicated time to understanding the August blues. Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Sharp theorized in his book The Emotional Calendar that we subconsciously track the passage of time with social and cultural markers, such as the traditional school year. 

As children, we spent so many years living in accordance with this external expectation that we internalized the old way of tracking time, even if it no longer serves us in adulthood.

Plus, there are environmental influences, like the decrease in daylight and cooler temperatures. Serotonin, which was flooding the brain and making you manic all summer long, suddenly drops, causing a lower mood. An influx of melatonin, similarly, causes the drowsy, languid feeling so characteristic of August. 

If you feel heavy and tired as the summer winds down, it’s not your fault. Nor does it imply you’re suffering from a mild form of seasonal affective disorder. It just means you’re adjusting to a natural, gradual transition. 

The nice thing about August is that it provides a gentler, friendlier reset, one that is more aligned with our natural instincts. Unlike in January, around this time of year, most of us actually want to start over and be a better version of ourselves. It’s easier to stay consistent and you’re less likely to burn out.