Anyone who has experienced a winter in the Midwest or endured a heat wave without air conditioning knows that extreme temperatures can test your sanity. However, scientists have recently discovered that being too hot or too cold could actually be clinically depressing.
Researchers have been tracking how higher than average temperatures can increase the risk for depression, and what the implications are for overall mental health in the wake of global warming. But the current study is the first to look at what happens when depression is a colder mistress.
So how many blankets does it take before it becomes a “depression blanket”? That’s unknown, but the researchers behind the new study surveyed 5,600 adults in China about their symptoms of depression, and analyzed their responses alongside weather data from the cities they lived in. The results indicated that people who lived in extremely hot or cold climates were more likely to be depressed. The researchers suspect this has something to do with how extreme conditions impact the nervous system and inflammation.
And so, as summer approaches, the study may give us another excuse to crank the AC for the sake of our mental health. But don’t get too carried away and accidentally ice yourself out of happiness either.