Weather and Emotions
Most recent answer: 10/22/2007
Q:
Does the weather effect human emotions?
- Amara (age 13)
Chantilly Highschool, Fairfax Virginia United States
- Amara (age 13)
Chantilly Highschool, Fairfax Virginia United States
A:
Sure!
Our emotions are largely under our own control, but we often do let outside influences affect them. If it’s rainy and dark, most people aren’t quite as cheerful as when it’s sunny and warm outside. In the wintertime, when days are short, some people get "the blues", otherwise known as "Seasonal Affective Disorder", or "SAD". Sitting under bright lights early in the morning seems to help some people with really bad cases of this.
Some effects of sunlight are truly biochemical. Production of vitamin D and melatonin are directly related to sunlight striking the skin.
We can all try to make an effort to be cheerful even when the weather isn’t so exciting. But some kinds of weather will certainly bring on strong emotions. If a tornado is headed my way, I’m sure to be TERRIFIED. Hurricanes will do the same. A long, cold winter will make me grumpy about my heating bill, and it makes my 2-year-old son bored and antsy, staying inside all day (getting out more helps, but it gets cold here in Illinois in the winter).
Tom
Our emotions are largely under our own control, but we often do let outside influences affect them. If it’s rainy and dark, most people aren’t quite as cheerful as when it’s sunny and warm outside. In the wintertime, when days are short, some people get "the blues", otherwise known as "Seasonal Affective Disorder", or "SAD". Sitting under bright lights early in the morning seems to help some people with really bad cases of this.
Some effects of sunlight are truly biochemical. Production of vitamin D and melatonin are directly related to sunlight striking the skin.
We can all try to make an effort to be cheerful even when the weather isn’t so exciting. But some kinds of weather will certainly bring on strong emotions. If a tornado is headed my way, I’m sure to be TERRIFIED. Hurricanes will do the same. A long, cold winter will make me grumpy about my heating bill, and it makes my 2-year-old son bored and antsy, staying inside all day (getting out more helps, but it gets cold here in Illinois in the winter).
Tom
(published on 10/22/2007)