Whether winter to blame for your bad mood

Is it winter - the cause of depression

Lack of energy, poor concentration, and constantly pursue the desire to climb into bed with the firm intention not to come out from there until the summer is usually supplied. We used to write off all these troubles to the end of winter. It turned out that a very, very good reason.

Seasonal affective disorder is considered to be one of the many forms of depression. As a rule, people are suffering from it in the fall and winter. However, the relationship between the time of the year and the most depression It has not yet been proved.

Scientists do not waste time and came to the conclusion that the blame throughout the winter quite unfounded and even reckless. Recent studies challenge conventional assumptions about the negative psychological exposure to the cold season on the person and offer a look at the existing problem unexpected side.

The weather can be chilly, the sky - overcast, but our mood and brain activity is, on the contrary, affects very positively.

The first major study was publishedMajor Depression With Seasonal Variation: Is It a Valid Construct? in the Journal of Clinical Psychological Science, highlights the issues of clinical psychology. We took part in the experiment over 34 million adults in the US aged 18 to 99 years old. Was put into question the assertion that the symptoms of depression are transported is much worse in the winter months.

The experiment was conducted by a team of scientists led by Professor of Psychology Steven Lobell (Steven LoBello) from the University Montgomery. Participants were asked to answer whether they have occurred in the previous two weeks, the symptoms of depression, and if so, for what it was. It is important to bear in mind that the survey was conducted at different times of the year and this allowed the researchers to examine the nature of seasonal changes in the situation.

The experimental results were quite contradictory: did not find any justification for the fact that depression is dependent on the time of year for the window. The seasonal effect is absent. Also, it does not play a role any latitude, no difference in the effect of sunlight on the subjects.

The term "seasonal depression" has long been on everyone's lips and is firmly lodged in our heads.

Every self-respecting person at least once during the winter for a week suffering from the seasonal disorders. Otherwise, and winter is not winter. However, after these studies, it is clear that one can formally grieve in any of the 12 months.

It is assumed that the purity of the experiments conducted earlier, influenced by the following factors: attention was focused on those parties who argued that greatly suffer because of changes mood.

Most of the experiments were in winter time, so the conclusion is obvious: of course, depression occurred because of the time of year. This approach has been focused on is to confirm existing hypotheses about the nature of seasonal depression.

Beautiful and strange term "seasonal affective disorder" captured the minds of people and spawned a whole industry that revolves around it. Here everything: pharmaceutical companies and medicine, Coaches and mass training in the fight against bad mood.

Fragmentary and inaccurate data related to the seasonal disorder does not prevent, but on the contrary, even helped people to make mountains out of molehills. The hypothesis that cold, dark and unpleasant months affect our mood became tip of the iceberg. Almost instantly, it was made the following conclusion: winter and a bad influence on our cognitive abilities. And, as a consequence, the Internet zapestril thousands upon thousands of articles on how to overcome the winter laziness and inertia.

Does the time of year affects the human intelligence

It just was devoted to the second studySeasonality in human cognitive brain responses. It affects a matter of time the impact of the year on the human brain. It was one of the first studies to try to refute the assumption that the work of the brain depends on the season and rates of depression are higher in the cold and dark days.

Neuroscientists from the University of Liege, led by Professor Christel Meyer (Christelle Meyer) conducted an experiment on 28 volunteers. Young men and women at different times of the year by 4.5 days in the laboratory. During this time, they had to write down his observations of the experience emotions, mood and quality of sleep and perform various tasks:

• Check the concentration of attention. It was necessary as quickly as possible to press the button every time the screen displays the stopwatch. The difficulty was that he appeared at different time intervals.
• Memory Test. We had to listen to a continuous stream of letters and notes if the current message is identical to what was on the three letters before.

After 4.5 days expired, participants necessarily brain scanned. The main goal of the experiment was to track depends on whether the brain activity of the subjects of the season.

It was found that the emotional state of the participants and melatonin levels remained virtually unchanged, depending on the time of year. That is how the idea that winter has a negative effect on our mental abilities, has been refuted.

We have to admit that some of the seasonal changes in mood yet been fixed, but the blame for them was not the winter and autumn. It was also found that the highest concentration attention It accounted for the summer, and in winter it is slightly reduced. With the regard to the ability to remember information, the situation is as follows: it is best to remember that we are in the fall and spring with this there are some problems.

It would be logical to assume that in the winter of our brain becomes dormant. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view, when the weather is gloomy and rainy, the brain has to save resources for its normal functioning. However, all quite on the contrary.

In the late 1990s in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology published an interesting studyArctic cognition: a study of cognitive performance in summer and winter at 69 ° N. Scientists from the University of Tromsø, led by Dr Tim Brennanom (Tim Brennan) conducted an experiment on 62 volunteers, to check whether the time of year affects their mental abilities.

Tromsø was chosen because the seasons happening there is very interesting. The city is located 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle. This means that from November to January polar night lasts, that is, the sun does not show above the horizon, and from May to July - the polar day.

After a series of tests, the researchers found little evidence of seasonal effects, but those who still were largely confirmed the hypothesis that in winter, the brain works much better. "Winter" experiment participants demonstrated great success in passing the tests for reaction time, and also better performed the Stroop test (to be read to myself the word, and call the color of the font, which they written). Thus it was proved that the work is improved winter brain.

With the result that

Many people do not like winter, especially its end, for obvious reasons: the cold, quickly darkens little sun. That's why in this time of year, many of us feel unhappy and depressed. However, sometimes useful to remember: our thoughts determine the way in which we see the world around us. When we have a bad mood and we feel lethargic and overwhelmed, it is easiest to blame the whole winter through the window.

Without a doubt, it often gives us problems. But one thing remains unchanged: it has no harmful effects on our brain. And even quite the opposite - it affects positively.