When Spring Arrives But Your Body Didn't Get the Memo

By Annalisa Brown, L.Ac., Dipl. Ac. | AB Acupuncture | Upper West Side, NYC

Every year around this time I start hearing the same thing from patients: "I should be feeling better — it's finally warm out — but I'm exhausted." If that resonates, you're not imagining it, and there's nothing wrong with you. Spring fatigue is a real physiological phenomenon, and in New York City it hits particularly hard.

Why Spring Can Feel Worse Before It Feels Better

We tend to think of seasonal transitions as straightforward — winter ends, energy returns, we feel great. But the body doesn't switch gears that cleanly. After months of cold, reduced daylight, and the particular brand of relentless indoor NYC winter, your system has adapted to conserve. Your cortisol rhythms have shifted. Your sleep architecture has changed with the light. Your liver — which in Chinese medicine is the organ most associated with spring — has been quietly accumulating the metabolic load of the darker months.

When the season turns, the body is asked to shift rapidly: more light, more activity, more demand. For many people, especially those already running on stress, poor sleep, or chronic tension, that transition creates a lag. The world wakes up but the nervous system hasn't caught up yet.

The result: fatigue that feels paradoxical, low motivation, irritability, a kind of heavy sluggishness that no amount of coffee seems to fix. Sometimes headaches. Sometimes a flare-up of old pain patterns. Sometimes just a pervasive sense of being off.

What Chinese Medicine Has Always Known About Spring

In traditional East Asian medicine, spring is governed by the liver and gallbladder — the organ systems responsible for the smooth flow of qi and blood throughout the body. When that flow is stuck or sluggish, the symptoms map almost perfectly onto what we call spring fatigue: frustration, tension in the neck and shoulders, headaches, digestive irregularity, disrupted sleep, and that flat, unmotivated feeling.

The liver in this framework isn't just about detoxification in the biochemical sense. It's about circulation, rhythm, and the body's ability to move fluidly between states — rest and activity, tension and release. Spring is when that system is most activated and most vulnerable to imbalance.

What I love about practicing in New York is that my patients tend to be pragmatic. They don't need to fully buy into classical theory to benefit from it — they just need to notice that the treatment works. And for spring fatigue, it reliably does.

What Treatment Looks Like

When someone comes in with classic spring fatigue symptoms, I'm looking at a combination of things: where tension is held in the body, how the pulse feels (often wiry this time of year, which is a liver signal), sleep quality, digestion, emotional state. The treatment is tailored, but there are common threads.

Acupuncture points that support liver function and promote the smooth flow of qi tend to be central. I often incorporate gua sha along the upper back and neck, which is remarkably effective at releasing the kind of tight, bound-up tension that accumulates over winter and doesn't want to let go. For patients whose fatigue has a more depleted, adrenal quality — where they're not just stuck but genuinely run down — red light therapy (photobiomodulation) can be a powerful addition, supporting cellular energy production and nervous system regulation.

Electrical stimulation through the needles may be used when there's significant muscular tension or pain involved. But often for spring fatigue, the treatment is more subtle — it's about restoring flow rather than forcing anything.

A Few Things You Can Do at Home

Acupuncture works best when it's supported between sessions. For spring fatigue specifically:

• Get outside in the morning light — even 10-15 minutes helps reset cortisol rhythms and signals to the brain that the season has changed

• Move gently and consistently — walks, stretching, yoga rather than forcing intense workouts your body isn't ready for

• Ease up on heavy, rich foods — the liver appreciates lighter eating this time of year: greens, sour foods, less alcohol and processed sugar

• Protect your sleep transition — as days get longer, artificial light in the evening can disrupt the melatonin shift; winding down earlier than feels natural can help

• Neti Pot - I do this in the shower...this way I don't worry about spilling. Cleaning the allergens out of my nasal passage is really helpful - the pollen builds up!

New York in May Is Demanding

There's no softer way to say it: this city doesn't pause for seasonal transitions. The pace picks up in spring — socially, professionally, energetically — and if your body is still in February mode, that gap becomes its own stressor. I see a lot of patients this time of year who are pushing through rather than addressing what's underneath, and the pattern tends to compound.

If you've been feeling off since the season turned, it's worth paying attention to. Spring fatigue that goes unaddressed often sets the tone for how you feel heading into summer.

AB Acupuncture | W72 Wellness | 118 W. 72nd St., Upper West Side, NYC Book a consultation →