Natural light affects our internal time-keeping system. This includes the daily (circadian) rhythms of our physiological and psychological systems, affecting even our mood and behaviour. Our response to light regulates these systems through entrainment, displaying the role of rhythm as a regulating mechanism. In the winter the changes to our circadian rhythm are are product of changes in natural light and also our reliance on artificial light. We might interpret this as low motivation, but first, let’s consider biological timing.

Winter attention is not a motivation problem

Each winter, there’s a challenge to learning. Although effort increases, it is not necessarily matched by progress. There’s a brittleness in the children’s attention. They are more easily distracted and need more encouragement to settle. The inconsistencies in focus are often explained by motivation or a lack of resilience or problems at home, but they could also be better understood by thinking in a systemic way about the broader biological patterns of winter. What matters here is not effort but timing. When biological rhythms are misaligned, attention becomes more fragile, even in motivated pupils. This is why January can feel disproportionately demanding.

Attention networks

Attention is usually described as the fuel or energy that drives our thinking and ability to sustain focus on a specific task. A ‘searchlight’ is a popular metaphor for attentional focus, which portrays the mind directing its energy resources onto the point of focus. The Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) (with nodes in the frontal eye fields and the intraparietal sulcus) corresponds with the notion of attention as a searchlight that can be directed at will.

And yet, there is another form of attention. The ‘searchlight’ of the DAN involves the projection of cognitive resources onto something in the external environment - perhaps a shiny object, a particular person or the solution to a problem. By contrast, introspective attention looks inward. Attention is captured by distractions that arise from within the nervous system (Corbetta et al., 2002; 2008), for example, a racing heart, hunger pangs, anxiety or even ‘deja-vu’. These internal, ‘bottom-up’ stimuli are mediated by the ventral attention network (VAN). These ‘bottom-up’ stimuli of the VAN are irrelevant to the goal-oriented focus of the DAN. In order to stay on task, children must develop inhibitory control of these distractions and the ability to switch their attention back onto the task in hand.

Why January classrooms feel more effortful

For school leaders, this distinction between the two attention networks matters. It explains why some pupils cannot bring their attention back, without first stabilizing internal states. In winter, pupils’ attention is often pulled inward by hunger, fatigue, anxiety and low mood. The classroom might feel restless or flat, but the ‘pull’ away from learning comes from the ‘bottom-up’ attention system (VAN) and children must more frequently bring their focus back on task, using cognitive switching and the dorsal attention system (DAN) to do so. This may help to explain why January can feel so effortful, even when teaching quality is very high.

Attention networks, executive functions and timing

Executive functions help us to stay focussed on tasks, to plan and to organize goal-directed behaviour, as well as to manage multiple tasks effectively (Diamond, 2002; 2013). There are three core executive functions.

These are:

1. Working memory, which allows us to hold information in mind, and even to process the information, for example by performing a calculation.

2. Cognitive flexibility, also known as task-switching supports decision-making processes that help us to keep the task on track, by ‘pivoting’ for example when the external or internal conditions change.

3. Inhibitory control enables us to sustain our attention on the task, rather than become distracted.

Traditionally, the prefrontal cortex of the brain has been associated with these processes (Banich, 2009), but recent research suggests that multiple processes contribute to executive functions and that more than one brain network is involved. Executive functions are influenced by internal and external stimuli - for example optimal conditions of lighting and sound outside the person, and an absence of pain, hunger or thirst from within.

This blend of internal and external factors is not only about physical conditions, there are also factors that relate to past, present and future. Executive functions draw together our previous experiences and also infer what might happen next, based on reasoning and probability, as well as on autobiographical memories that might evoke how it felt to be in certain situations. Being able to ‘time travel’ in an instant and to make decisions or solve a problem by drawing on a wide range of experiences, is now thought to involve five of the six main brain networks.

1. Salience network (SN)

2. Default mode network (DMN)

3. Central executive network (CEN)

4. Ventral attention network (VAN)

5. Dorsal attention network (DAN)

Reading fluency as a timing-dependent process

This networked view illustrates why reading is not a linear process, but timing-dependent. Reading orchestrates processes involving prediction, memory, attention and emotional regulation.

This more dynamic perspective achieves a more flexible and integrated view of executive functions across a broad range of networks and dispersed across different regions of the brain. Each of these play an important role in learning and reading comprehension in particular.

This networked view of executive function offers a more nuanced, rhythm-based view of reading that considers multiple networks as well as the effects of cognitive load.

As we can see from the involvement of the two attention networks, the executive functions are involved in maintaining and allocating attention. If you would like to know more, sign up here for my weekly newsletter ‘Insights’.

How circadian rhythm regulates alertness, focus and energy

In education, we rarely talk about amplitude, yet it may be one of the most important variables we are currently overlooking. Amplitude determines not just how alert pupils feel, but how well they can anticipate, integrate and express what they are learning.

When amplitude is high, alertness sharpens, anticipation improves and learning feels easier. When amplitude is flattened, as it often is in winter, clarity and prediction weaken, even when effort and motivation remain high.

There is evidence that shorter days and lower light intensity have an effect on lowering mood. Our mood is regulated by neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline as well as our state of alertness, motivation and attention.

Our alertness is governed by our circadian rhythm, which is a wave pattern that rises and falls with the journey of the sun across the sky. In the winter, the amplitude of this wave is relatively flat and lacks definition as the sun stays low in relation to the horizon. In the summer, the sun remains high above the horizon and the amplitude of our well-defined circadian rhythm reflects this, with increased alertness for much of the day.

Amplitude shapes clarity, expectancy and integration. When amplitude is high, the brain anticipates accurately. When amplitude flattens, information processing becomes weaker, prediction is clouded and learning feels fragmented, even when motivation is strong.

Some people with a flattened circadian rhythm experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and benefit from light therapy, which boosts mood and improves sleep. Various genes govern circadian rhythm across many species and have been investigated in mice and fruit flies, which have been bred so that the effects of removing these genes can be studied. The genes associated with our circadian rhythm are also closely tied to mood. The mice lacking the genes that govern circadian rhythm exhibited sensitivity to stress, despair, anxiety, increased need for sugar, helplessness and depression. Researchers have now established a link between cryptochrome genes and the availability of dopamine receptors in the reward system (Porcu et al., 2022).

A study of Old Order Amish, a population that does not experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) showed that a pre-industrial lifestyle may explain the importance of our nature circadian rhythm for health and well-being (Lee et al., 2020). This population had a ten fold higher amplitude in diurnal variation than the general population. As they were outdoors all year round, their circadian rhythm was not altered so much by seasonality or by increased use of artificial light in darker months.

Taken together, the research points to the link between mood and sensitivity to the light/dark cycles in nature. Our society values consistent productivity, but our genes are programmed to entrain with light and when we optimise the amplitude of our circadian rhythm - as in the example of the Old Order Amish shows, mental health disorders associated with seasonality disappear.

Imagine for a moment that you are at a theme park, riding a rollercoaster. The steeper the gradient, the stronger the response in terms of thrill, energy, reward and pleasure. Now imagine a road bump, it doesn’t register physiologically, not in the same way at all.

The key is expectancy. Amplitude sharpens expectancy.

Prediction, expectancy and why effort alone is not enough

This is why fluency feels effortless when the conditions are right. Prediction is not a higher-order skill layered on top of decoding. It’s the mechanism that powers language processing.

We are programmed to anticipate what is coming up next. This applies to social interaction, the plot twists in a movie, learning to walk as an infant. We thrive when the amplitude is steeper, not only in terms of responding to cycles of dark and light, but also in the way that we learn, and that includes learning to read. When we increase the amplitude in relation to reading, we make it easier to anticipate what is coming up next in the children’s reading and they are better able to assimilate the content.

Expectancy supports prediction. Prediction underpins fluency and comprehension.

Reading fluency depends on prediction. The ability to anticipate what comes next in a phrase, a sentence or a line of text is what allows decoding to give way to comprehension. Circadian and rhythmic amplitude support this predictive capacity. When amplitude is reduced, anticipation weakens. Children may still decode accurately, but reading remains effortful and fragmented.

What changes first when timing is restored

Last term, children who took part in Rhythm for Reading followed the same pattern. What emerged first was not faster reading, but stability. As sensitivity to rhythm increased, pupils reported that they felt happier and calmer, and that they were now able to listen to their teacher, had become less internally distracted, and were more focused. These children were chosen for the project by their class teachers based on progress in reading in the previous academic year. The gains in reading comprehension took place between September and December.

When timing was supported, the changes that follow were not trivial. What we observed last term, was not a sudden acquisition of a skill, but stability. This appeared first in attention, then in anticipation and eventually in measurable reading outcomes.

I’m not silly anymore: 18 month gain in comprehension.

I feel nice and calm: 17month gain in comprehension.

It was good. It was calming: 13 month gain in comprehension.

I felt focused: 12 month gain in comprehension.

I can listen for longer: 11 months in comprehension

I listen to the teacher more: 15 months in phonological blending.

Why rhythm matters for attention and learning and what this means for school leaders

For leaders, this reframes the challenge. The new question is how effort might become more productive by leveraging rhythm. Rhythm is enrichment for most pupils, but for some it’s an embodied cognitive scaffold for learning. When timing is supported, effort becomes productive.

This perspective removes a sense of blame without lowering standards. When effort does not translate into progress, the question is not necessarily about motivation, but about regulation. When rhythm becomes a tool for regulation, the timing of biological rhythms can support learning. Systems that ignore this natural phenomenon demand increased effort for diminishing returns.

Once their sensitivity to rhythm is restored, children are better able to control their impulses. Feelings of calmness, suggest that previously they were experiencing some anxiety about reading or were not at ease. This underscores the importance of mood for focused attention and access to executive functions. Rhythm provides a natural biological means to rebalance the attention system.

This work draws on cognitive neuroscience, classroom observation, and outcomes from structured rhythm-based intervention in primary, secondary and special schools. Learn more here.

REFERENCES

Banich, M.T., 2009. Executive function: the search for an integrated account. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 18, 89–94.

Corbetta, M., Kincade, J.M., Shulman, G.L., 2002. Neural systems for visual orienting and their relationships to spatial working memory. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 14, 508–523.

Corbetta, M., Patel, G., Shulman, G.L., 2008. The reorienting system of the human brain:from environment to theory of mind. Neuron 58, 306–324.

Diamond, A., 2002. Normal development of prefrontal cortex from birth to young adulthood: cognitive functions, anatomy, and biochemistry. Princ. Front. lobe Funct.466–503.

Diamond, A., 2013. Executive functions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64, 135–168.

Lee et al (2020) Daily and seasonal variation in light exposure among the old order Amish, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 4460; doi:10.3390/ijerph17124460

Porcu, A. et al. Seasonal changes in day length induce multisynaptic neurotransmitter switching to regulate hypothalamic network activity and behavior. Sci. Adv. 8, eabn9867 (2022).