SUNSHINE, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS - Can the sun make me happy? - Sun exposure is good for you. A chronic lack of sun exposure has been linked to fertility problems, cancer, poor health and depression. People actually get depressed, with symptoms like sadness, fatigue and hopelessness -- from a lack of sunlight. The disorder runs in cycles of depression and wellness that follow the seasons -- more specifically, the availability of sunlight. Someone with SAD might feel perfectly fine in spring and summer, and then experience a severe downturn in mood when fall hits. The body creates its supply of vitamin D from the sun's ultraviolet rays hitting the skin, and high levels of vitamin D help the body maintain high levels of serotonin.

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 Sunshine, Health And Happiness

Can the sun make me happy?

BY JULIA LAYTON

Wait -- could slathering on the sunscreen 
actually make you less healthy?

We've been hearing about the evils of sun exposure practically from birth. It causes not only premature skin aging and sun spots, but also a much more formidable foe: skin cancer.

With the dire warnings in mind, most of us apply sunscreen every day and seek out shade when we're outdoors, lest our skin come into contact with the sun's harmful UV rays.

As it turns out, there's another side to the story. Sun exposure isn't all bad. In fact, it's mostly good.

That's right: Sun exposure is good for you. After decades of avoiding it, researchers are finding that we may have been doing more harm than good.

It's a shock to the system, for sure, but the evidence is substantial.

A chronic lack of sun exposure has been linked to fertility problems, several forms of cancer, general poor health and varying degrees of depression.

Lack of sunlight has a profound effect
 on most people's mood.

People actually get depressed, with symptoms like sadness, fatigue and hopelessness -- from a lack of sunlight.

The form of depression most often associated with variations in sunlight is seasonal affective 
disorder (SAD).

The disorder runs in cycles of depression and wellness that follow the seasons -- more specifically, the availability of sunlight.

Someone with SAD might feel perfectly fine in spring and summer, and then experience a severe downturn in mood when fall hits.

They'll stay that way through the winter, until the sun comes out again in full force.

SAD is particularly prevalent in parts of the world with little winter daylight and/or extended overcast periods, like Alaska or the U.S. Northwest.

In this article, we'll find out why sunlight exposure can affect your emotional well-being and how you can safely use the sun to benefit your mood.

As it turns out, humans aren't quite as removed from their natural instincts as some believe.

Ups and Downs of Light

Most animals are sensitive to light. Their biological processes are profoundly affected, sometimes even controlled, by the cycles of sunlight and darkness that characterize day and night.

These relationships are called circadian rhythms, and they help maintain cycles like sleep and wakefulness and are connected with seasonal fertility in "lower" animals.

In humans, the connection between light and biology is somewhat looser.

People don't typically mate seasonally, for instance -- although conception peaks in Finland in the summer months, when the sun shines for up to 20 hours a day, so there's still a connection there [source: Brody].

And as for sleep patterns, while most people sleep at night and are active in the day, there are plenty of people who reverse that to work the graveyard shift.

But evidence shows that those graveyard shifters may be suffering from the reversal in unexpected ways.

One area where humans may not be able to escape the sun's biological effects is on their moods. It all comes down to a complex relationship among sunlight, melatonin and serotonin that we're only just starting to understand.

Melatonin is a hormone that controls sleep, and serotonin in a neurotransmitter that is tied to states of wakefulness and being in a "good mood."

Serotonin is the chemical targeted by a class of anti-depressants called SSRIs, which keep higher levels of serotonin in the bloodstream to help elevate mood.

The web connecting sunlight, melatonin and serotonin goes something like this: When the sun comes up again, and sunlight hits the optic nerve, some of that light is sent to the gland in the brain in charge of melatonin.

In response, melatonin secretion decreases. When the sun goes down, the body increases its secretion of melatonin.

At the same time, when the body perceives sunlight, serotonin levels increase. And the more sunlight the human body is exposed to, the more serotonin the brain produces [source: ScienceBlog].

So in effect, melatonin and serotonin have an inverse-proportional relationship that is guided by the body's perception of sunlight. The overall effect is "downtime" at night and "uptime" during the day.

There's another factor involved in sunlight's affect on mood, though: vitamin D.

The body actually creates its supply of vitamin D from the sun's ultraviolet rays hitting the skin, and high levels of vitamin help the body maintain high levels of serotonin [source: Collinge].

So what does this mean for the daily sunscreen routine? Are we bringing on sadness by protecting our skin from UV light?

Sunblock Buzz Kill

When health-conscious people apply sunscreen regularly to all exposed skin before heading outside, they may actually be doing more harm than good.

People who suffer from seasonal affective disorder are most likely missing out on the visible part of the sun's light spectrum.

That's the part that communicates with the brain via the eye, affecting melatonin and serotonin rhythms. In those cases, exposure to full-spectrum sunlight -- even artificial sunlight -- can help to elevate mood [source: Brody].

That's the basis of phototherapy for depressed patients with SAD. Sunscreen isn't necessarily a problem in that regard.

But a lack of exposure to the ultraviolet part of the spectrum -- the light rays that are blocked by sunblock on the skin -- could be helping to keep the depression cycle in business.

If you're never in the sun without UV-blocking sunscreen, your body probably isn't producing enough vitamin D.

And research shows that loading up on vitamin-D-producing sun exposure in bright summer months can help maintain high serotonin levels through dark winter months [source: Collinge].

And what if you don't suffer from severe winter depression?

Does that mean you should feel fine about getting all of your light exposure from incandescent or fluorescent bulbs?

Probably not. Too much exposure to limited-spectrum indoor lighting, and the related under exposure to full-spectrum light, has been connected with problems like fatigue, reduced immune function and possibly fertility issues [source: Brody].

What's more, vitamin D deficiency may increase your risk of getting certain types of cancers, including prostate, colon and, believe it or not, skin [source: USA Today].

So do we throw out everything we know about the evils of sunlight and go bake in the sun to our hearts' content?

As with everything else, moderation is key.

First, to help your circadian rhythms stay in tune, get all of the sunscreen-protected sunlight you want, and make sure you open the blinds when you're stuck inside.

To keep up your supply of vitamin D, aim for about 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure three times a week [source: USA Today].

For more information on sunlight, circadian rhythms, happiness and related topics, look over the links below.

Julia Layton has a B.A. in English Literature from Duke University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Poetry from the University of Miami. When she’s not at the Writing Center, she works as a freelance writer and editor; her writing is published on web sites like HowStuffWorks, The Learning Channel, and Forbes. In her free time, Julia cooks, reads, worries, makes jewelry, and raises a child.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/sun-happiness.htm

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WHEN MUSIC MAKES YOU CRY - What emotion do most people feel when they are moved to tears by music? - Many types of music can move people to tears; blubbering in the balcony is iconic in opera. The phenomenon of crying sparked by music is an interesting, but little-studied behavior. Whether music does or does not make you feel like crying reveals something about your fundamental personality, and the particular shade of emotion gripping you as you feel choked up is different for different personality types. Evoking emotion is the main point of music, after all, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that songs can put a lump in our throats. Music can calm or excite; it can motivate, uniting worshipers in peace and devotion, or driving people into battle with the sound of drum and bugle. Crying is a complex human behavior that can accompany a variety of intense experiences. It can be provoked by grief, as at a funeral, but also by extreme happiness, as at a wedding. But helplessness, gratitude, and other subtle emotions can also provoke tears. What emotion do most people feel when they are moved to tears by music? The researchers surveyed 892 adults to determine how many had experienced feeling like crying while hearing music, and what emotion they were feeling at that moment. The first finding is that being moved to tears by music is not unusual; 89.8 percent of the people in the study reported that they had experienced feeling like crying by hearing music.

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When Music Makes You Cry

What emotion do most people feel when they are moved to tears by music?

.

Evoking emotion is the main point of music, after all, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that songs can put a lump in our throats. Music can calm or excite; it can motivate, uniting worshipers in peace and devotion, or driving people into battle with the sound of drum and bugle.

.

Crying is a complex human behavior that can accompany a variety of intense experiences. It can be provoked by grief, as at a funeral, but also by extreme happiness, as at a wedding. But helplessness, gratitude, and other subtle emotions can also provoke tears. 

R. Douglas Fields Ph.D.

The New Brain

Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

 

Ever find yourself moved to tears by music? Eva Cassidy’s "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" does it for me. How about you?

Many types of music can move people to tears; blubbering in the balcony is iconic in opera. The phenomenon of crying sparked by music is an interesting, but little-studied behavior. 

According to a new study, whether music does or does not make you feel like crying reveals something about your fundamental personality, and the particular shade of emotion gripping you as you feel choked up is different for different personality types. 

Researchers Katherine Cotter and Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina, and Kirill Fayn of the University of Sydney, collaborated on research to investigate the emotions that people experience when music makes them feel like crying. 

Evoking emotion is the main point of music, after all, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that songs can put a lump in our throats. 

Music can calm or excite; it can motivate, uniting worshipers in peace and devotion, or driving people into battle with the sound of drum and bugle.

Crying is a complex human behavior that can accompany a variety of intense experiences. It can be provoked by grief, as at a funeral, but also by extreme happiness, as at a wedding.

But helplessness, gratitude, and other subtle emotions can also provoke tears. What emotion do most people feel when they are moved to tears by music?

The researchers surveyed 892 adults to determine how many had experienced feeling like crying while hearing music, and what emotion they were feeling at that moment. 

The first finding is that being moved to tears by music is not unusual; 89.8 percent of the people in the study reported that they had experienced feeling like crying by hearing music.

The participants were asked to rank their emotional feelings accompanying that response across a spectrum of 16 emotions, including euphoria, happiness, awe, anxiousness, sadness, depression, etc.

The researchers found that people who had been moved to tears by music could be clearly separated into two groups: those who felt sadness, and those who felt awe.

The majority (63 percent) reported feeling sad when music made them cry, and 36.7 percent reported feeling awe.

Is there something about the personalities of people in these two different groups that could explain why these two very different emotional reactions — sadness and awe — provoked tears while listening to music? 

The participants in the study had been given a psychological test to classify them according to five personality attributes — neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. 

When the researchers sorted the data, they found that people who ranked high on the neuroticism scale experienced sadness when they had been moved to tears by music, and people who scored high in the openness to experience scale felt like crying because the music provoked a profound sense of awe. 

In Eva Cassidy’s performance, the emotion evoked is definitely awe. 

I feel awed by experiencing the extraordinary talent of one person to deliver such a perfect and moving performance — built from nothing other than her beautiful voice and skillful is a live performance, and the tension of sustaining perfection alone in the spotlight magnifies the stakes. 

The song has become a thread-worn children’s jingle from a lifetime of overuse, but here it is transformed and soaring. 

So I guess my reaction puts me among the minority who cry at music because it invokes awe, compared to the two-thirds of people who cry because a song is sad. 

If the correlation with personality traits is correct, I should not rank particularly high on the neuroticism scale (thankfully). But I’m not so sure. 

This thought-provoking study is a good start, but it has some limitations. The experimental group was comprised of college students, which may not adequately reflect the population as a whole. 

Also, 69.6 percent of the participants were female, and the possible effect of gender was not analyzed. 

Another consideration is that in relying upon each person’s recollection of a time in the past when they had felt like crying while listening to music, the study depends on self-reporting to be accurate. 

But in my opinion, there is another complication at work. 

Human emotions are complex. They don’t always fit like pegs into the slots that researchers provide in their experimental designs. 

I remember being moved to tears while hearing Pete Seeger sing "We Shall Overcome," inspiring everyone in the crowd to join in a united chorus of solidarity and determination.

The predominant feeling I had at the time was sadness. 

I was thinking of all the people who had sung that song in the streets of this country over the years in peaceful struggles to overcome racial and social injustice; black-and-white images of the Governor of Alabama blocking the doorway of the university, police dogs, fire hoses blasting protesters off their feet, neighborhoods burning in summer riots, the horrors of a war in Southeast Asia that ripped our country apart and challenged every young man of draft age to confront their own morality and mortality, to distinguish duty from deceit, and decide, betting their life, about a war that was taking the lives of thousands and maiming thousands more — and what for? 

But it was not only sadness that I felt as I listened to Seeger sing. It is possible to experience both sadness and awe simultaneously. 

It is natural to feel powerless and overwhelmed by forces of national and international power. What can one person possibly do? All that Seeger had was a banjo. 

I felt a bittersweet mix of sadness and awe in seeing one man with the courage to stand up against injustice. 

Motivated to try to make the world a better, more peaceful place, to inspire us to be better human beings, and do it with the only thing he had — songs. 

Music is powerful stuff. As a biologist, I see tooth and nail everywhere in nature, because unfortunately, violence is sometimes necessary for survival. 

But amidst current events — such as the hurling of brutal threats to obliterate millions of people with thermonuclear weapons — perhaps what the world needs now is a few less bombs and a few more banjos.

R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D., teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park and is the author of the book Electric Brain.

Online:

RDouglasFields, Twitter

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-brain/201709/when-music-makes-you-cry