There’s something in the air, and it’s not just pollen. Spring break, spring vacation, spring wedding-spring fever. We want to go out, wear less clothes, and mingle more. Children can feel it too. Talk to any teacher and you’ll likely hear that crazy things happen in the classroom.
Dr. Michael Smolensky, a professor at the University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health, said that whatever form this energy surge takes, it’s the result of longer days with more sunlight.He is the co-author of this book Your biological clock guide to improving your health.
In fact, many aspects of daily life are controlled by seasonal patterns and circadian rhythms (our internal body clocks), Smolenski tells WebMD.
“These are the rhythms of life that we take for granted,” he said. “People accept the fact that our bodies are organized in space—our toes are at the end of our feet and the hair on our heads stands up. But we rarely consider that our bodies are organized in time. A fact.
When the seasons change, the retina (the lining of the eye that connects to the brain through the optic nerve) naturally responds to the first subtle changes in the amount of daylight, says Sanford Auerbach, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center. react to the signal. This response triggers hormonal changes, including adjustments in melatonin, a hormone that affects sleep cycles and mood changes.
During the long darkness of winter, the body naturally produces more melatonin. For people who are prone to seasonal affective disorder, all that melatonin can trigger the winter blues. In spring, melatonin secretion decreases and depression decreases.
“There are more hours of daylight, so people have more energy and less sleep,” Auerbach said. “People with bipolar disorder [bipolar disorder] Spring may be even wilder.
It’s that time of year when body image looms large in our consciousness. Smolenski says we’re getting rid of the carbohydrate cravings that make us gain weight. “This is likely a remnant of the hibernating biology of our ancestors. In the fall, they began to gain weight to survive the lean period of winter.”
Smolenski tells WebMD that we may have more energy in the spring, but it won’t necessarily translate into the bedroom. “When we looked at couples who kept diaries of sexual encounters and single men who kept their own data, sexual activity was really quite low in the spring. The peak was in the fall.”
reason? Testosterone levels peak in the summer and fall, not in the spring, he said. Evidence: More women conceive in late summer and early fall than in spring, he said. This pattern also appears in CDC data on two common sexually transmitted diseases, syphilis and gonorrhea. Peak periods are late autumn and early winter.
He said that our ancestors long ago chose to give birth in the autumn. “Given the long gestation period of mammals, it is best to conceive in the fall and give birth in the spring, when the availability of nutritious food can support the offspring. This may be a natural selection that is ingrained in human genetics.”
However, our most recent ancestors practiced Valentine’s Day “as a pagan ritual whose sole purpose was to celebrate sexual activity,” Smolenski tells WebMD. “Are the primitive ways of this society a means of stimulating sexual interest in a time when there really was no sexual interest?”
Spring break and the holidays may evolve similarly, he said. “With enough alcohol and nudity, sex is a normal response that can occur at any time of the year.”
Be warned: There will be more unplanned pregnancies in the spring, Smolenski tells WebMD. He analyzed studies on the use of IUDs and birth control pills and found that two unintended pregnancies occurred in one year – in May and September/October – “despite the women’s claims that they had been consistent with birth control. Seasonal Biological Factors are working, but we don’t know what they are.
Another word of warning: “Sperm counts are higher in the spring,” he said. “In sexually active men, sperm count is affected by two factors – ambient temperature and sexual activity. When they are sexually active, sperm count decreases. When they are not sexually active, they do not use it, So go up.
