How Weather Can Change Your Mood
Source: pixabay The indoor entertainment pursuits offered by the Internet have made the weather less important than it used to be, with regard to a number of recreational activities. Casino fans, for example, are no longer deterred by rain, snow or sleet when they feel like playing their favourite games; online and mobile casinos are always readily available. And as long as you have an online connection and climate control, you can enjoy casino games at Ruby Fortune online over long winter nights, or in the middle of a summer heat wave; both are immaterial. But that doesn’t mean the weather is irrelevant to modern life, though. We’re used to idioms being a ‘figure of speech’, but the phrase ‘under the weather’ could be more literal than you imagine. Scientific research has shown that weather does affect human moods and emotions, and sunlight seems key. Here’s what the weather could do to your moods, and how to make the most of its effects:
Winter Can Make You SAD
This is probably the most familiar effect of the weather, which tends to affect people mainly in the northern hemisphere, where there’s enough land close to the pole to support larger populations. That means long, dark days in the depths of winter. Insufficient sunlight for several months a year makes your body lower production of serotonin, the neurotransmitter that boosts healthy sleep, libido, appetite and mood. At the same time, your melatonin production increases, making you feel sleepy all the time. Seasonal Affective Disorder can lead to severe depression and even suicide, and many northern climes use light therapy in the winter, or even just a timer that turns lights on to fake a sunrise before you wake up, as effective ways to combat it. Even if you don’t suffer through long, dark winters, a quick break outdoors for a walk or mild exercise in the middle of every day, out in the sunshine even if it’s chilly, is a proven scientific way to improve mood, creativity, memory and open-mindedness. For more productive afternoons at work, take a midday break outside wherever possible.
Rain Can Hurt - and Blow Your Diet
Source: pixabay People who ‘feel a change in the weather’ in their joints - especially a joint that has broken and healed - aren’t just superstitious. Wet weather, with rain or snow, is accompanied by a change in atmospheric pressure. This in turn changes the pressure of the fluids in various blood vessels and cavities around your body, which can cause pain and stiffness in tissue even around healthy joints that have never been injured, but which is even more noticeable in joints that have their fluid pathways further obstructed by callousing after a break. So Yoga or Pilates is a better exercise solution in wet weather - anything high-impact will worsen joint and tissue pain. Rainy days also usually mean less sunlight, which makes your serotonin levels drop. As they dip, you’ll start to crave carbohydrates - but it’s healthier to snack on low-GI starchy foods like pumpkin or potatoes, which also have plenty of fibre, vitamins and minerals, rather than greasy fried snacks. They’ll give a long-term boost, rather than a quick peak and another serotonin crash.
Sunlight Can Make You Overspend
Source: pixabay With the all-round mood-boosting effects of sunlight, thanks to our bodies’ response to it with a Vitamin D boost, reduced melatonin and increased serotonin levels, it’s easy to overlook the one drawback - extravagance. Yup, what you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts – scientific research has established that people out shopping spend more when it’s sunny. So maybe try to confine your shopping expeditions to cloudy days?
