How weather affects your mental health – the science behind the changing seasons and your mood swings
- Has the weather got you down? Science can explain why, especially when it comes to getting the winter blues
- On a grey day, your body produces less of the happy hormone
Are you a summer person, or do you prefer the invigorating chill of winter? No matter the temperature outside, we all react differently to the weather.
Psychologist David Watson is a keen observer of such reactions. “In modern society, many people do not spend a lot of time outside, which reduces the potential influence of weather on their mood; however, different people actually prefer different types of weather,” says the professor, who is co-director of the Centre for Advanced Measurement of Personality and Psychopathology at the University of Notre Dame in the US state of Indiana. “Some like it hotter, others cooler; some like it dry, others more wet and humid.”
No matter your preference, research shows that the wintry months – and the extended hours of darkness that often come with them – can have an effect on your mental health in the form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Despite its symptoms having being mentioned in scientific literature in 1845, SAD didn’t acquire a clinical name until the early 1980s. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, about five per cent of the US population experiences SAD each year, with their symptoms lasting for about five months of the year.
SAD is believed to be connected to the body’s circadian rhythm – our waking and sleeping routine, which is almost entirely controlled by light and darkness. Weeks of overcast skies can mess with this, and consequently affect our mental health by tipping the delicate chemical balance in the brain.