With the seemingly endless rain, grey, dull days and cloudy skies of late, you might be forgiven for feeling just a little bit down in the mouth, but should you blame the weather for your mood? It may surprise you to learn that scientists believe the weather's influence on our day-to-day mood is either non-existent or very subtle.
Behavioral neuroscientist Prof Andrew Coogan from Maynooth University donned his raingear to join the Drivetime show on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss this. (This piece includes excerpts from the conversation which have been edited for length and clarity - you can hear the discussion in full above beginning at 24.55 mins)
So, Prof Coogan, what does the science have to say? "There's little evidence to suggest that there's really a day-to-day variance on the effect of weather on our mood", says Coogan. "As a population, there might be some individuals who are more sensitive to it than others, but zooming out and mixing everyone together, surprisingly, there's little to day-to-day variance and that doesn't feel right."
Coogan says it's slightly different with sunshine. "We have so much difference in the amount of sunshine we have here in the middle of winter compared to the middle of summer. There's probably 10 hours more sunlight a day at the height of summer than there is at the height of winter and we know sunlight definitely does have effects on mood as well. I suspect that any effect of the weather is really to do with sunlight."
A cloudy grey, rainy day means we're less likely to go outside, which can be a mistake, points out Coogan. "Even if you can't see the sun, the amount of light that's outside is going to be multiples of light coming from your electric bulbs in your house or in your office.
"Sunlight is good for our mood even on a grey, miserable day and getting out in that will make us feel better. I think it's all linked. What effects there are, are linked to sunlight, and some people are probably a lot more sensitive to that than other people."
Coogan feels the weather is just one of a suite of things which heightens our stress levels and worsens our mood. "Imagine you're heading out to do your commute into work on a miserable wet morning. You're going to be stuck in a snarl on th M50 or somewhere. That's going to increase your stress, and that's going to make you feel worse.
"That's a sort of indirect effect, if you like, of the weather. The weather is a proxy, I think, for lots of other stress and all those things that we know can affect our mood. They probably have a lot bigger effect than any direct effect of the rain, the sun, the wind, whatever it is."
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
