Does Weather Affect Your Mood?

Is your mood influenced by weather? I am clearly affected by rain — especially when it rains consistently for weeks as it has lately. And I know other people who are, too, so I thought I’d study why the extra precipitation alters the limbic system (emotional center) of the brain and review the research regarding mood and weather. Studies that Link Mood and Weather John Grohol, PsyD, founder and CEO of Psych Central, offers a great overview of the studies that exist on weather and mood. There is research that says weather has little to do with mood, he notes, but “the overall preponderance of evidence suggests that weather can have more than just ‘a little effect’ on you mood.” Here are some of the studies Grohol presents. The largest, published in 1974 in the journal Acta Paedopsychiatrica, involved 16,000 students in Basel City, Switzerland. In the study, 18 percent of the boys, and 29 percent of the girls, responded negatively to certain weather conditions, exhibiting symptoms of fatigue, dysphoric moods, irritability, and headaches. In a small study published in 1984 in the British Journal of Psychology, a group of 24 men were studied over 11 days. It was determined that humidity, temperature, and hours of sunshine had the greatest effect on their mood. The finding on humidity was the most interesting to me. “High levels of humidity lowered scores on concentration while increasing reports of sleepiness,” the researchers wrote. Finally, ...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Bipolar Depression Research Atmospheric pressure Bipolar Disorder Highly Sensitive Person Melancholy Sadness seasonal depressive disorder Spring summer Weather Source Type: blogs