Blame it on the Sun

After months of dark cold days, there’s nothing like sunshine and mild temperatures to raise the spirits.

The legendary "spring feelings" make one feel active, happy and in the mood for some flirting and even sex.

But what is usually put down to "a seasonal change" actually has sound scientific explanations.

Scientists say that both humans and animals become particularly sensitive to the attractions of the opposite sex during spring. Just wearing light, cotton clothing is enough to raise the sexual lust among men and women.

And though it doesn’t need a scientist to point that out, the fact is that spring does have an effect on the hormones and can trigger certain biological reactions.

More sun, more sexual desire

Endocrinologists have traced increased sexual desire in spring to the warming rays of the sun.

The human body registers the change from less to more sunshine on the skin and converts it into bodily processes through the hormone melatonin.

Discovered in the 1960s, melatonin is called the "wonder hormone" – a panacea for cancer, ageing and insomnia.

Melatonin has a special reaction o n the sex hormones and the reproduction cycle.

During the dark winter days, the human body produces significantly more melatonin, which endocrinologists believe blocks sexual processes. Since the days are much longer in spring, melatonin levels sink and sexual desire rises, scientists say.

Love, romance and all that mush

But it’s not just the body that spring titillates. But also the mind and above all, feelings.

This is where the hormone dopamine comes into play.

Dopamine makes one euphoric and excited. The brain produces dopamine during eating, drinking, sex and even during drug consumption. It gives one the feeling of doing carrying out an activity happily and wanting to repeat it.

According to scientists, humans are more susceptible to falling in love and entertaining romantic notions and plans in spring.

More marriages, friendships, romantic alliances and pregnancies take place in the months between May and August than during the rest of the year. More love stories and poems are penned during the sunny months.

Scientists say that even the biological clock ticks differently during spring.

They claim that even the chirping of birds can almost always evoke a smile within a quarter of a second during this period.

Since people spend more time outdoors, they also emit more pheromones or sexual odours and can also sniff them more clearly.

If one were to believe scientists, humans also perk up when they see colours in spring. And since nature blooms in a myriad of colours, moods lighten up too.

Endorphin for staying single and happy

And for those who’d rather keep from falling in love or avoid close encounters with the opposite sex, but still feel happy and contended, scientists advise creating a burst of the hormone endorphin.

This can be achieved by bungee jumping off a bridge, jogging for some 30 kilometres or attending a high-impact aerobics class.

Endorphin that was discovered in 1976 can be described as a bodily drug that can either give one a high or a feeling of comfort depending upon on the dose.

Endorphins are present during mushy romantic feelings as well as by passionate sexual ones.

And endorphins are also supposed to explain why a person turns happier after the touch of just the first ray of the sun.