(photo: Maciej Andrzejewski, Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz)
Neurotics and the weather – being sensitive to changes in the environment
An international team of researchers from Utrecht, Berlin and Edinburgh have found that weather parameters such as temperature, wind strength and sunlight are associated with a negative mood – the colder, darker and windier it is, the worse the mood. However, this effect is mostly seen in people with a high level of neuroticism – a personality trait underpinned by a highly sensitive nervous system.
Neurotics are highly sensitive to stimuli, prone to anxiety and unpleasant emotions. They acutely feel any changes in their environment, react intensely to any kind of unfulfillment and listen to their body and its reactions. They observe their surroundings and themselves carefully, so they find links between changes in the environment and their well-being much more easily than people without this trait. You can't get rid neuroticism. It has a genetic basis. This is why the life of a neurotic person is more difficult than that of someone who objectively functions under identical conditions but does not have this trait.
Time outdoors – a strong relationship with mood
Matthew Keller's team from the Department of Psychiatry at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics found that the relationship between weather and mood (and even memory and cognitive abilities in general) is a function of time spent outdoors. More pleasant weather (higher temperature, atmospheric pressure) improves our functioning in spring when we spend time outdoors. Similar effects have also been found for other seasons, but in spring they seem to be the strongest. The same research shows that excessive heat and hot days reduce mood and vitality.
In the field of psychiatry, we also encounter the so-called Seasonal Affective Disorders, which comes in two types: the winter type (sleeping long hours, depressed mood, excessive eating) and the summer type (insomnia, lack of appetite, irritability and anxiety). We can speculate that changes in the symptomatology (description and grouping of illness symptoms) of depression are related to the seasons, but the mechanism behind this observation remains unknown.
Spring daze – distraction, insomnia, loss of appetite
The terms 'spring fever' and 'spring sickness' are used in the peri-academic space. In the 18th century, it was observed that in spring, some people could develop the following symptoms: fatigue, malaise, bone pain, bleeding from the scalp and gums, the formation of bruises without cause and poor healing of wounds. These conditions, as we know them today, resulting from nutritional deficiencies, were precisely referred to as 'spring sickness'. Nowadays, in highly developed countries with easy access to varied foods and ample opportunities for dietary supplementation, it is difficult to talk about the spring sickness.
Spring fever, on the other hand, consists of mood swings, facial flushing, accelerated heartbeat, loss of appetite, restlessness, periodic insomnia and a state of permanent absence of mind manifesting itself in April and May. This rather poetic description refers to the state of falling in love associated with springtime. Spring fever is not a scientific term. Does it really exist? I suppose, one must decide for oneself whether to believe the tentative judgement by scientists or the experience of poets in this matter.
According to biologists, this spring stunting is a manifestation of the light-dependent seasonality of the reproductive behaviour. After a winter standstill, it is necessary to prepare for mating. As many researchers have shown, in spite of industrialisation, which offers the possibility of regulating light and temperature, we are still subject to the rhythms of nature.
In fact, we don't really know what will get us in the spring – balance, euphoria or weakness and despondency. The substrate of human behaviour and states is too complex to depend solely on the season or the weather. These can only be the icing on the cake or the final straw. So let's do our own thing, with love and respect for ourselves, regardless of sunshine or rain.
Source: Prof. Dorota Merecz-Kot, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Lodz
Edit: Iwona Ptaszek-Zielińska, Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz