So my beardie (6 months old, female) just got done dealing with some pretty bad relocation stress, but luckily we're mostly back to normal. She's eating fine, pooping normally, and finally hanging out outside her hide again. Today she hung out basking and moving around from 7AM to now, which is about 3:45 PM. She just went to the bathroom, and then crawled inside her hide, dug underneath her little towel she has in there, and is now looking ready for bed. I'm not worried about her since I've seen her eat and poop and bask for hours, but is it possible that she's feeling the affects of winter coming on? It's already really cold and stormy where I live (been pouring all day), and I live really far north so the sun starts to set around 3:30-4 in the afternoon. If so, should I start waking her up even earlier in the morning? 7AM is already a little early for me to get up and give her fresh veggies, and she's always hungry right away when she wakes up, but if she can wait a little while to eat, I'm happy to set her timer to maybe start getting her up around 6?
Yes, it's likely seasonal changes. I think you'll notice that over time their waking hours tend to be a bit cyclical but don't necessarily follow the lighting or weather outside. I used to adjust the lights to match the sun, but have since backed off that and just make small tweaks to set the lights off a bit earlier when they seem to consistently fall asleep earlier in the day - following their routine rather than the environment. Either way is probably fine, so just go with what works best for your schedule.