Why Spring Fever Is a Good Thing

Three health-related reasons to celebrate spring: Seasonal Affective Disorder becomes orderly; there are fewer heart attacks in spring; and the number of flu cases almost always declines. On the other hand, many of us begin to feel weird. We are restless, have even more trouble than we usually do paying attention, and find romance in strange places. The L.A. Times offers some reasons for the seasonal weirdness that we call spring fever. Let’s start with chemicals. In winter, the paper reports, the body secretes high levels of melatonin, a hormone that
governs sleep-wake cycles. Come spring, the increasing amount of
daylight is registered by light-sensitive tissue in the eye, which
signals the brain to stop secreting so much melatonin. As the hormone’s
levels drop off, greater wakefulness results. Wait, there’s more on the chemical front: In spring, levels of another chemical, serotonin, rise. This mood-elevating neurotransmitter may be at the root of the
giddiness, energy boost and enthusiasm that characterize spring fever. Read more about spring fever in the L.A. Times.