WEBVTT - Rites of Spring 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to stuff to blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.720 Works dot Com. Hey you welcome to stuff to below 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.040 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.759 do you like spring? Do you like the season spring? 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.440 Of course I do. Yeah, How could you not like spring? 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.840 It's true. It's even even though I've never been a 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.040 summer person. Where I used to not be a summer person, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.760 I always did like springs because no matter how short 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:35.440 your spring is depending on where you live, and it 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.879 feels like we have very short springs at times here 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.319 in the South. It's it's a time when things begin 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.600 to come alive a little bit, but not everything I 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:46.920 was alive yet, not all of the really annoying things 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.479 have have have sprung up around you, such as the 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.080 mosquitoes necessarily, or the poison ivy, all the things that 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.680 drive you indoors um. But it's just nice enough to 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.960 to exist outside, to not have to turn on the 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.640 air conditioning or the heat. You can set around, you 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.120 can read you're comfortable out there in nature, as perhaps 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:11.640 got into um for me, it's just emerging from winter's 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.720 dark shadow, right because you have been inside, you've been, 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.520 you know, you've had cabin fever, and all of a 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.480 sudden you can step outside and the sun is a 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.080 shining and the festivals are are all over the place, 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.080 especially in Atlanta. April is festival of Go Go Time. 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.520 And for me, the best sign of spring in Atlanta 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.920 is when you see people walking down the sidewalk with 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:38.000 their pillows for International Pillow Fight Day. I did not 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.360 know this existed April five. Huh yeah, because really, I mean, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.160 you've got that big blue sky. People are about to 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.800 collabor each other with with soft weapons. Is this the thing? 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.760 This sounds This is a little crazy like Shirley Jackson's 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.720 The Lottery, you know, like it. It sounds like something 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.320 you would encounter in some isolated town and then you 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:00.000 would yeah, Freedom Parkway. Well actually I think this year 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:01.800 it's going to be in Grant Park. But every year 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.720 in Freedom Parkway people gathered with their pillows and you 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.880 see feathers just to fly and wow, well that that 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.200 is strange. But indeed to your point, though, spring is 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.800 a time where you you come out of your your hibernation, 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.399 you come out of the darkness and to get down 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.760 to the very primal root. Stop it springtime means the 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.680 winner didn't kill us, that that god or the gods 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.000 did not abandon us to the darkness and the chill 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.440 of night. Like springtime came and it saved our lives. 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.520 Things are growing again, food is available again, and it's 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.239 to be celebrated. And you see this in different cultures, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:43.239 you know, since time immemorial, right, because people are they're relieved, 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.959 and they're going outside and they are celebrating this. You 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.320 see that this in the festival of Holly, right. Um, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.839 this is a celebration of the colors of unity and brotherhood. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:55.280 You see this in India where people go around they 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.320 pelt each other in the face of all these beautiful 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:03.200 different colored um sands. And this is a way of saying, 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.280 as you say, hey, guess what we all made it. 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.800 All of us are brothers and sisters, and this whole 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.160 human thing we survived in another winter. Yeah, I mean. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.720 In the Christian tradition, of course, you have the the 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.080 death and Resurrection of Jesus as well, which which fits 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.400 right in there and plays upon on older uh Easter 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.239 traditions as well. Now, now it also brings up the 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.160 question why must we have tax season right in the 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.880 spring like that seems to really just sour the whole equation. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.079 It's like, we finally come out, we're free, we're alive. 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.000 Now you have to pay taxes. It's kind of like 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.520 having to worry with your car tax when your birthday 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.400 comes along. Oh, it's just like the I r s 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.840 to be like ha ha ha spring. You think everything 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.200 is renewing and emerging. Death to your money exactly. I mean, 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.120 because it comes back. What are the two things you 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.440 can't dodge in life? Right, death and Texas? And there 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.800 you go, and they are interlaced with each other, death 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.400 and taxes at a very basic level. But that's a 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.200 rant for another time. Yes, that is um. So let's 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.680 talk about this idea of spring a little bit more 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.360 in the context of how it might just not only 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.200 symbolize this reemergence, but it may even change our behavior. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.080 But before we get to that, we should probably talk 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.000 about how much time we spend indoors. Yes, And it's 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.159 pretty pretty disturbing because because most of us we go 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.760 through our lives and we don't necessarily think of it 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.200 in those terms, like we're not keeping a precise diary 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.560 of how much time we spend outside dear Diary. I 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.880 mean I feel a little more in touch with it 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.560 these days, with the with the toddler, because taking the 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.320 toddler outside the park is huge. And so when like 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.880 suddenly not being able to go outside for a few 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.680 days or a week is is very noticeable because it starts, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.960 you know, clawing at eufanity. Yeah. Well, according to the 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:53.159 Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spent about eighty seven percent of 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.160 their time indoors and another six percent in their vehicles. 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.479 And as you say, you probably you don't really unless 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.000 you are, you know, putting it down in your die, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.920 or you don't realize because you think, well, I went 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.560 outside to go to the grocery store, I went outside 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.800 to do the other errand and you feel like you've 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.680 had outside experiences when in fact you have been inside 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.320 sort of cloistered, especially if you work in an office, right, 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.560 and and you see, you know, different surveys make that 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.400 percentage a little higher to like I've seen seen nine 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.599 for Americans on a two thousand nine e p A study. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:33.920 I've seen for people in industrialized countries on another study. 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.279 So it's a talking percentage to to really think about. Yeah, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.040 social you take that plus that six percent. You get 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.320 that really inside a location, right, that's sealed in, right, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.719 And that's key because we we did a whole episode 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:53.599 talking about how artificial indoor environments, how those are really 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.600 alien environments that we've we've created like not only just structurally, 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.600 but also the uh, the the micro biology of those structures, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.600 the things that we're breathing in. We've created these strange 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.479 realities that are separate from the natural environment with well 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.000 we've evolved to thrive in. That's right. We did. We 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.400 looked at that study with hospitals opening their windows to 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.200 let fresh air and their fresh microbes, I guess you 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.400 could say, and that being exceedingly beneficial to the patients. Um. Now, 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.960 also consider that when you are inside, you are most 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.440 likely sitting down or lying down in the ladder. Of 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.719 course is necessary for sleep, but the former, as we know, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.239 is associated with a smartgese board of physical ailments, including 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.200 an increased risk of type two diabetes. So all of 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.440 this sedentary inside stuff not so great force, and of 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.920 course it would play out in many different ways. Yeah. 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:46.360 I also want to point out that according to the 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.080 e p A, indoor levels of pollutants maybe two to 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.200 five times higher and occasionally more than a hundred times 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.240 higher than outdoor levels, which is important to think about, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.480 especially here in Atlantic where occasionally we received these alert 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.480 saying that if you're very young, are very old, please 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.039 don't go outside today because the air might destroy you. Um. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:07.600 But then you have to start stop and think, well, 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.760 what what kind of air am I fleeing to? You know? Yeah, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.680 but let's let's get toned to the more like rainbows 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.520 and kitten farts here thinking about it. I know, I know, 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.240 but let's take out the sun and look at it, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.160 because she'll shine upon us and take away all of 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.440 our ailments. The power of the sun is immense. When 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.800 you step out into the sun, those rays or about 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.640 a hundred and forty nine million kilometers away, and when 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.840 they hit your skin, they unleash a chemical chain reaction 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.480 that benefits us. For instance, vitamin D is produced yes, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.520 which most of us do not get enough of no, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.840 and that helps to absorb calcium and foods and which 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.840 of course that helps to grow bone and and uh 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.320 maintain bone health. And it also helps to bolster the 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.520 immune system. So it makes sense that when you go 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.000 out into the sun, wonderful thing has happened. You should 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.880 wear some screen of course, yes, yeah, is that there's 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.120 too much light makes the baby go blind, as they say. 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.840 Now a more quantitative look at this is a two 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.120 thousand and eight study published in the journal Psychological Science 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.320 which looked at the cognitive benefits of spending some time 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.960 interacting with old nature. University of Michigan psychologist Mac Berman 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.240 took a sample group of thirty six people, broke them 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:22.680 into two groups, and then put them through a series 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.840 of rigorous cognitive test He then let each group take breaks, 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.320 one group walking around the city street and the other 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.360 through a secluded wooded park. Now, of course, who do 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.839 you think performed better on the cognitive tests later on? 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.240 And and of course memory being one of those things 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.720 the nature group, Because the idea is that strolling in 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.040 a city forces the brain to constantly remain vigilant as 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.680 you navigate cars and people, and you sets out the 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:59.319 relevant information from from irrelevant information. Um, so for instance, relevant, 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.240 oh don't say up in that poop? Irrelevant there's a 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.080 sale on bras right, Um. The end result is that 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:11.920 those those city walkers are having a less restorative scenario 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.439 for their brains. In your prefrontal cortex is very occupied, 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.040 so your cognitive functioning in terms of learning is not 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.920 going to be as great. So it kind of takes 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.120 our sort of everyday myopic view of the world that 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.840 the flashlight view, and maybe opens it up a little 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.600 bit a little more lamp like where're actually absorbing sense 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.160 data a little more openly. Yeah, because you're in a 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.720 calm environment, Um, you don't have to worry about what's 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.679 coming next so much. And of course it's fascinating too 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.840 when you you start then asking the question, well, how 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.200 much time do when you spend out of the day, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:49.600 I'm spending this enormous like like hovering near nine of 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.199 my life is spent indoors, So how much of that 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.839 do I have to give back? Like some impossible amount 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.960 do I have to give back? Well, studies show that 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.000 just five minutes a day can give you that boost 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.120 in mental health. Just five minutes, Like that's that's not 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.760 even that's not even all of your lunch break, you know, 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.160 that's just that's just a leaving work five minutes early 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.880 or something. Yeah, that's from two thousand and ten research 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.280 published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, and they 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.520 looked at self esteem and nature. And they found that 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.960 just that the five minutes of people who were engaged 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:28.280 in exercise, cycling, walking, running, gardening, farming. Um, if you 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.400 had that amount of time, then your self esteem and 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:35.319 your mood would be elevated. And of course they measured 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:39.320 this using standard psychological tests before and after the activities. 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.120 Now smoke breaks don't count though, right, uh, I don't 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.440 recall that being covered. We depend, I guess on the 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.600 nature of your smoke break, but probably not so. Of course, 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:53.520 the idea begins to emerge. We should frolic outdoors daily 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.240 for at least five minutes more if possible. But is 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.480 there something to spring itself? Are these day ease of 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:05.000 sunshine really special in that sense of of re emergence? 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.560 Is that well founded? Is that not just symbolic? Do 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.960 you should we just take off spring some work. Well 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.280 there's spring break, of course, which you know, to a 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:21.440 certain extent, just one week. Yeah, but the whole season? Yes? Okay, 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.800 well yeah, this gets into the whole question. Is there 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.679 not only link between spring and mood, but is there 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.920 a link between weather and mood, between climate and modd Like, 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.000 how much of what's going on in the environment is 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.720 affecting my mental state to begin with. Right, all right, 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.360 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:44.880 we're gonna answer that very question. Alright, we're back, and 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.360 we're discussing this question. Does the weather, does the climate? 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.760 Does this everything going on outside the window? Does it 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.920 affect affect our mood? And we often fall into the 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:56.880 trap of thinking that it just universally does. We've all 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.720 seen the cartoon image of the depressed person with their 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.080 own personal rain cloud hovering over their head, right, uh, 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.400 and so, and it's easy to fall into that trap 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.880 of say thinking that, well, everyone in Seattle must be 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.560 depressed because it's raining all the time. Or I really 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.440 want to boost my mood. I want to move somewhere 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:16.319 where the weather is nicer, and therefore my internal weather 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.240 will be nicer as well. But when you actually analyze it, 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.480 this doesn't really hold up. No. Matthew Keller, a lead 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.079 researcher of the meta study at Warm Heart and a 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:31.360 Clear Head the Contingent Effects of weather on mood and cognition, says, quote, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.800 everyone thinks weather effects mood, But the biggest test of 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.080 this theory in two thousand. In the year two thousand 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.000 found no relationships. So we went back and found that 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.920 there are two important variables, how much time you spend 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.120 outside and what the season is. If you go from 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.520 winter to spring and spend enough time outside, there is 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.600 a noticeable change. So it's this change that's key. This 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.000 this emergence from the dark into the light, from the 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.360 cold into the warm, and actually getting out there and 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.560 experiencing it. That's what can actually make a difference on 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.320 your cognitive state. Yeah, and it is a certain degree 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.199 of temperature that will actually make the biggest impact on 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.760 your state of mind. And we'll talk a little bit 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.199 more about Keller's research, but I just wanted to mention 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.040 that all of this has to do with spring, because 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.559 a peak mood occurred at sixty seven point four degrees fahrenheiten. 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.960 This is kind of the goldilocks of temperature and not 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.840 too cold, not too hot that you see in spring. 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.800 So when we talk about some of these different aspects 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.280 of the research, to keep in mind that that's the 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.960 perfect spring day weather right where you've got the blue 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.200 skies and um, you know, you're just as comfortable as 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.679 you can be. It's almost like the metaphor of being 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.240 in the womb and floating around and in your you know, 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.040 the edges of your body just melting into everything else 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:55.160 around you. Maybe you don't have the exact feeling of 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.000 that when you go out your front door in that weather, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:01.360 but there is a feeling of comfort. Well yeah, I think, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.720 but I think we often do have that that feeling. Again, 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.440 it comes back to that whole realization, Hey, the weather 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:08.000 is nice enough outside. I don't have to turn on 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.680 the heat. I don't have to turn the air conditioning. 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.720 I can open a window. Or you walk outside in 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.520 the spring day and you say, hey, it's nicer outside 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.640 than it is indoors, which is such an insane thing 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.200 to say, but but but it's true. And then you 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.160 feel the edges of your body melting around you, and 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.080 you think, ah, I felt this before somewhere. All right, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.600 let's talk about these studies. There was one in which 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.440 nineties seven people reported their mood and how much time 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.120 they spent outside. Then they were asked to remember a 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.160 series of numbers. They were also given a short favorable 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.120 description of a fake employee, and then they were given 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.760 additional unfavorable information about that same person and asked to 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.720 assess the employee's competence in performance on the days with 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.240 high pressure, that's the clear, sunny days when you have 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.840 high barometric pressure. People who spent more than thirty minutes 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.360 outside saw an increase in memory, mood, and flexible thinking styles. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.480 Those who spent the time indoors, though, they saw a decrease. 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.640 So when they talk about flexible thinking styles, we're talking 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.680 about a sense of openness. So they were regarding that 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:14.200 employee and some of the more unsavory details about that 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.640 person in a more open minded way and kind of 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.560 giving them a pass on those days that there was 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.640 beautiful weather and they were spending a good chunk of 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:28.120 it outside. Interesting. Interesting, Now the second experiment that has 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.720 a D twenty one people spend time outside, of course, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.520 or inside on a warm, clear, beautiful day. Have you 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.440 ever had that experience where you you both have been 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.560 outside just frolicking, or you've been inside chained to your 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:47.280 computer looking longingly outside. Yeah, kind of think. I had 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.440 one of those days last week where it was inside 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:51.600 here the office all day doing stuff, and then I 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.400 went outside at the end of the day to go 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:55.920 home and realize it was beautiful, and I felt this 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.320 this deep sadness because I knew that one of the 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.920 few uh nice days that we have in the city 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.560 was lost to me. Well, that is exactly what happened 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:06.840 in this experiment. Of course, people who went outside their 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.640 moves were lifted. Uh, they felt great, they had some 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.240 pep in their step. But the people who were changed 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.120 to their desks and made to stay inside were angry 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.640 about it. Now, they weren't physically chained in the experiment, 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.320 it's worth noting just just to be clear. No, there's 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.000 a rope. There's a rope. Yeah, we don't want it 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:26.080 to rub too much, exactly. Yeah. And then the third study, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.040 the researchers collected data through a website from three eight 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.600 seven respondents who lived in various climates, because what they 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.360 wanted to do here is to try to get out 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:36.320 of the northern climates that they are already in and 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.280 make sure that they had some other representations of climates 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.240 throughout the world. And they correlated the submissions with the 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.480 weather in each city for that day, and they found 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.120 that participants who spent more time outside during the spring 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.960 but not during any other season had better moods overall. 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.160 So again, everyone is coming outside everythone is emerging. It's 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.800 like that that the flower is opening to the warmth 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.320 of a world, society is is coming alive again. Everyone's 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.600 creeping outside of the cave. But it turns out there's 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.359 a dark side to this as well, and to understand it, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.960 we have to first back up a little bit to 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.320 Christmas time. Now. Now, Christmas, the holidays, whatever you want 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.280 to call them, whatever they are to you, they are 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.960 essentially the around the darkest times of the winter, when 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.240 things are at their at their their their blackest, things 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.320 are at their coldest, And a lot of what's going 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.960 on there at a deeper level, is about the hope 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.040 that spring will come again, that if we do right 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.800 by nature, by the God, by God's by ourselves, whatever, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.439 we can survive the rest of this night and emerge 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.320 into springtime. And there's this myth that has just stayed 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.600 with us, largely because it's repeated over and over again 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.800 in the media that suicide rates are hired during the holidays. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.160 And it's an easy one to buy, because, yeah, people 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.240 get down sometimes in the holidays. They can be a 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.080 little sad. You know, suddenly you're having the holidays and 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.639 someone that you've lost isn't there with you anymore, or 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.800 you're you know, you're experiencing some degree of seasonal effective disorder. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.920 The world's dark, everything's colder. Maybe that's getting you down 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.879 as well. But according to the Anneburg Public Policy Center, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.680 it's the idea that to suicide rates peaked during the 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.080 holidays is complete, complete bunk, and the media should stop 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.359 repeating it and driving home this falsehood. Yeah, Brian Palmer, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.840 writing for Sleep magazine, says it's a convenient narrative that 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:31.280 would keep picking up lonely people becoming despondent around Christmas time. Um, 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.720 the real information here is that suicide actually peaks in 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.440 the spring and summer, and if you start to try 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.160 to sess out all of the reasons why, it becomes 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.960 very difficult. Now. Um, when Palmer was writing this article 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.280 for Sleep magazine about suicide upticks in spring and summer, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.720 he went through some various theories about it. But I 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.480 just wanted to say that there's no one like unified 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.200 theory here, and a lot of it has to do 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.960 with that person's particular circumstances, not just because this person 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.680 happened to work in this kind of job in Uruguay 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.320 at the time, but we should probably run through it 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.800 because it is really interesting. The one that seems to 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.840 during the most with the most truth for me is 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.560 the is the sociodemographic factor. And this is the idea 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.760 that during winter, what are you doing. You're surviving the winter. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.560 You're kind of hibernating in some way, shape or form. 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.399 You know, you're you're buckling down, You're you're you're just 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.600 about get through the holidays, get through the new year. 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.439 You know, throw in you know, weird work schedules and 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.960 trips and more time with the family. You know, it's 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.720 gonna very case to case, obviously, but for the most part, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.600 you can say that throughout this this winter you are 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.280 you're keeping it close. You know, you're shutting off, you're 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.679 not really dealing with as many people, uh in the 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.199 outside world. But then when spring comes, everyone's getting out 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.439 and about uh there, you know, suddenly everyone has new 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.960 projects that you're launching at work. It's not about just 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:00.680 let's get through all the weird works I all the holidays. 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.120 It's suddenly like, let's have meetings and get things done. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.879 Let's start building things together. Oh and then oh and 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:07.800 then taxes are here. We have to pay the taxes 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.400 as well. Uh, Suddenly the socio demographics of the world 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.240 around you are erupting and coming together, and things that 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.960 say that, you know, problems in your life that you 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.359 might have been able to to dodge by hiding from them, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.560 Suddenly you're not able to hide from them as well, 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.880 you know, or plans that you had made, Uh suddenly 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.400 have to come together in a different way. I mean 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.439 it's you're suddenly exposed to more frustration, more conflict in 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.720 your life, and if, if, and and that can spill 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.840 over into self destruction. Yeah. A good example of this 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.719 is the paper is Occupation Relevant and Suicide and this 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:50.840 studied suicides in Finland during the years of nine and 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.600 what it found is that the spring suicide peak is 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.919 more pronounced among people employed on farms or in factories, 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.520 who experience greater seasonal variation in the intense of work 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.840 and social interactions. In addition, developing countries with a higher 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.520 proportion of agriculture workers see more seasonal changes in the 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.720 stuff in the suicide rate than you developed countries, and 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.920 Palmer says that the magnitude of seasonal changes in suicide 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:19.520 rate is more than ten times higher in Uruguay, for example, 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.640 than in Belgium, because suddenly the pressure is on let's 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.440 get it, let's grow things. We have to plant things. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.800 The cycle is is is heating up at the farm, 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.040 and therefore the pressure is on you. There's more frustration 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.080 and and that can spill over. Now there are just 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.840 there's a raft of controversial studies linking something like allergens 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.639 or even temperature spikes to suicide rates. But there's really 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.360 no one weather pattern or one variable that you can 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.479