Winter wellness comes down to five habits: caring for your skin, getting enough vitamin D, protecting your sleep, lifting your mood and staying active.
Here are our tips for each, along with a few ways to put them into practice at our spas if you'd like a hand.
1. Get your skin autumn and winter ready
Cold, dry air pulls moisture from your skin, so it feels tight and flaky. A few simple swaps help.
- Change a foaming cleanser for a cream or balm one.
- Move to a richer moisturiser at night and put it on while your skin is still slightly damp.
- Keep showers warm rather than hot, because very hot water strips natural oils.
- Exfoliate gently once a week so moisturiser can get in, and no more than that, since winter skin irritates easily.
- Keep wearing SPF on bright days, especially if you're walking on the coast or the Downs. UVA, the type linked to skin ageing, doesn't drop much in winter.
A facial at the start of the cold months is the easiest reset. At Ockenden Manor, the Winter Glow Facial is made for this time of year, with gentle exfoliation to lift away dull, dry skin. It's one of two treatments you can choose in the Festive & Fabulous Spa Afternoon.
Bailiffscourt and The Spread Eagle pair a back, neck and shoulder massage with a facial in Sparkle & Delight and Twinkle Twinkle Winter Spa Day. All three include a two-course lunch with a glass of Sussex sparkling wine, and run Monday to Friday until 23 December.
If you'd like something more targeted, both hotels also offer LED light therapy facials using Déesse Pro masks. A calming light mask aimed at helping pores and pigmentation while you lie under a weighted blanket.
2. Eat for energy and top up vitamin D
Between October and March, we don't make enough vitamin D from UK sunlight. The NHS advises that everyone consider taking a 10 microgram supplement daily through autumn and winter.
Food-wise, winter is soup and stew season, which suits it. Start with a healthy breakfast, and fill your day with oily fish, eggs, citrus fruit and plenty of vegetables to cover most of what you need. Fats from fish, nuts and seeds also help skin hold on to moisture from the inside. Hot drinks count towards your fluids, so a pot of tea after your spa session fits in neatly, and you'll find delicious seasonally led menus to keep you well nourished. See what's on offer at Bailiffscourt, Ockenden Manor and The Spread Eagle restaurants.
3. Protect your sleep and your immune system
Most adults do best on at least seven hours. In winter it's easy to stay up late and then struggle to get up when the alarm goes off in the dark. Going to bed at the same time each night helps more than any supplement.
A sauna or a soak in the outdoor hot tub at Ockenden Manor or Bailiffscourt in the evening, followed by a cold dash back to a warm, cosy room, is one of the more reliable ways to feel ready for bed.
If sleep is the real problem, The Good Sleep Retreat at Ockenden Manor offers two nights' accommodation and workshops with sleep psychologist Dr Maja Schaedel. Learn the science behind sleep and enjoy a private consultation, a breathwork session, yoga and time to walk the Sussex countryside, with meals included.
4. Look after your mood
Shorter days affect energy and mood for most people, even those who'd never call it winter blues. Get outside in the morning if you can, because daylight helps set your body clock. A lunchtime walk is worth more than it sounds. Make plans with people before the diary fills with excuses.
The other half of this tip is switching off. Phones in a locker, a robe, a quiet relaxation room and nobody needing anything from you for a few hours. That counts as mental health care as much as a walk does.
Take it one step further with the Wellness Collection day at Ockenden Manor, which brings together a restorative spa experience and a carefully selected wellness ritual from our spa partner, Made for Life Organics. Or try the Isopod flotation tank; an hour spent just floating, perfect for calming an overstimulated system.
5. Keep moving
The hardest part of winter exercise is leaving the house, so make the destination worth it. Right from the doorstep of The Spread Eagle, Midhurst there are self-guided walking routes into the South Downs.
At Bailiffscourt, the grounds lead down to Climping beach, and a windy walk on the shingle followed by a swim in the heated outdoor pool is hard to beat. At Ockenden Manor, Cuckfield Park and Borde Hill Garden are a short drive or a decent walk away.
If the weather wins, swimming does the job instead. All three spas have an indoor pool; Bailiffscourt and Ockenden Manor also have heated outdoor pools, and the gym and fitness studio at Bailiffscourt run classes through the colder months.
Pick one and start there
You don't need all five by Friday. If skin is the one that's bothering you, a facial and an afternoon in the spa is a good place to begin. Take a look at the spa at Bailiffscourt, Ockenden Manor or The Spread Eagle, and check for current treatments, spa days and opening times before you book.
