Does Weather Control Our Behavior?

"Grey skies are going to clear up, put on a happy face." Culturally, we tend to associate blue skies with happiness, and cloudy days are gloomy and dreary. When the sun is shining, we say that we are happy. But when it's raining, we don't feel 100%. We feel tired, and our joints are more prone to aching then. But is all of that just in our heads? Or does the weather really affect us, physically?

Dull grey skies may cut down on glare for drivers, but they tend to make people more reserved. In the winter months, many come down with what is commonly known as "seasonal depression", where a lack of sunlight and blue, radiant skies causes someone to become so depressed and removed, even to the point where it impairs one's ability to function normally. It's an actual condition, with real symptoms. And the therapy treatment? Light. You see, we all have this hormone called melatonin, which regulates our sleeping cycle, alertness and reaction time. With light therapy, people are able to get their melatonin levels back on track, and help fight the winter blues. (source)

It's not just the visible weather conditions that affect us, either. Air pressure seems to play a large role in adjusting our behavior. By now, we know that low air pressure can cause labor pains. But joint aches and migraine headaches may also be aggravated by pressure as well. And about those joint aches, can Uncle George's knee really predict the weather? It might! The nerve endings on the end of the joints have tiny little receptors that can sense pressure changes. So it would stand to reason that if a storms rolling in, and it's messing up the air pressure in front of it, that someone would be able to tell just by their achy joints.

However, the link to migraine headaches is less than conclusive. Many migraines have been triggered during or before a change in barometric pressure. However, when actual weather data is lined up with the timelines of clinically-diagnosed headaches, it doesn't always add up. The study did, however, find that while temperature and humidity were prominent factors, some migraine sufferers were either extremely sensitive - or non-responsive - to extreme temperatures. (source)

We could keep throwing scientific studies at you all day, and it still wouldn't be convincing as the world-wide standard for truth in these matters: common sense. If people feel sour during grey weather, then grey weather makes people feel sour. If people feel happy when the sun is out, then the sun makes people feel happy. We can try to explain melatolin levels more, but somehow, I don't think that it's as great as an argument as feeling the differences during different types of weather.

So the next time you feel yourself in a funk, and don't really know why, take a took around to see what the weather's like. It may not necessarily be anyone's fault - it could just be how your body is reacting to the weather.