At the Second Church of Odyssey you'll find different ways of expressing your beliefs, finding prayer support or being encouraged through regular devotionals.
While I recognize that the vital life functions are the same in either case, hibernation would result in a state of little to no movement of basic motor muscles. My entire point with the 'diminishing life' not only revolved around hibernation, but the state of the natural world during a constant cold snowless season. Without deciduous plant life, most of the animal kingdom would either be in a state of hibernation or decreased activity. Some of the lesser definitions of 'life' would describe the lack of animation as a diminishing of life.
For example:
b : animate activity and movement <stirrings of life>
Okay, I see what you’re saying now. I still don’t really agree with that loose (or strict, I’m not sure) definition of life though. Yes, hibernation represses life’s functions, but I definitely would not say it represses or diminishes life itself, because after hibernation the creature is just as alive as it was before.