Reluctance to study might not be due to lack of motivation

Your reluctance to study this time of year may be more due to lack of sunlight than lack of motivation.

Winter study woes When Mother Nature decides to turn her back on the North every fall, the beauty of multi-colored leaves and breezy days only last so long. Winter rears its ugly head in November and often does not look back until March or April. Through the seasons, rain or shine, rain or snow, rain or sleet, rain or hail, students make their daily treks to class. And wet shoes and wind-burned faces are not the only consequences.

Cold weather can work both for and against students who have to brave it everyday, said Kristen Coner, a junior at Macalester College in Minneapolis.

“I guess I’m more motivated to study because there is no temptation and everyone else is inside, too,” Conner says. “Sometimes you do get cabin fever though.”

Coner says that although the high temperatures in Minneapolis rarely rise above 20 in the winter, the area’s sunny winter skies makes the cold weather less depressing.

According to psychologist Dr. Paul Becker, sunlight, or the lack thereof, is the key to the winter blues. He said sunlight raises the level of melatonin (the hormone that helps us keep rhythm with the seasons) in a person’s cerebral spinal fluid, which in turn raises a person’s spirits. In fact, those who have been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) show a lack of melatonin and often require supplements in the form of pills or light therapy.

Weather or Not…

Here it comes. Some say they study better during bad weather because the sunshine isn’t snaring them in its play-all-day trap. Others say bad weather triggers a Seasonal Affective Disorder-like apathy in them, so they’re worse students in the crappy weather months. How does the weather affect your success as a student?
Talk to the students of the world about it.

Students like Coner, who find that sunlight is highly connected to personal motivation, support the theories of psychologists.

Dr. Becker believes that students who go to school in colder climates will be far more affected by the degree of sunlight than the level of mercury in the thermometer. He recommends that during the winter, students should find activities that interest them in order to overcome any depression they may feel.

“Between October and March, you typically get into a doldrums thing,” Dr. Becker says. “If you’re not a real winter sports enthusiast, you go into hibernation.”

Dr. Becker encourages students to exercise and get out of the house to fight the winter blues.

While Coner says the sunlight in Minnesota helps counteract the cold temperatures, she also says Minneapolis and Macalester make the best of the cold winters by having ice festivals and annual snowball fights. These kinds of activities, according to Dr. Becker, are good solutions to overcoming any kind of weather-related depression.

At Emory University in Atlanta, seventy-degree weather in February is a good motivating force for students, according to sophomore Sara Levin.

“It’s easier to dress and it’s much nicer trekking to class when the weather’s nice,” Levin said.

Coner noted that it’s easier to study when the temperature is cold and Levin said it is far more difficult to study when the weather is warm. She adds that she would rather be outside with her friends than inside reading books.

Ohio University junior Jamie Eaglton disagrees with Levin, however, arguing that he is more motivated to do his work in June than in January.

“When the weather is good outside, I seem to have more energy, which lets me get my work done quicker and get outside and enjoy it,” Eagleton said.

That is just the problem Denise Litner, a junior at Tulane University in New Orleans, said she tries to avoid.

“I think the bottom line is how serious of a student you are,” Leitner says.

She adds that many of her friends like to enjoy the 80-degree weather in February by taking their books outside to one of the quads. However, Leitner said that no one ever gets work done outside, and that she personally resorts to people-watching and falling asleep on a blanket.

“If you are going to succumb to the weather, you are not going to get anything done,” Litner says emphatically.

That’s not to say, however, that Leitner would trade the warm weather for cold weather. In fact, contrary to the theories of sunlight, Leitner says she prefers New Orleans’ frequent warm rainy days to cold sunny days.

University of Michigan sophomore Jenni Tucker also thinks the impact of sunlight and weather are overrated. A native of Houston, Tucker, like Litner, says she does her work and goes to social events regardless of the weather.

“To me, my job is going to school, so I go,” Tucker says.

Tucker was not phased by the three feet of snow she found on the ground upon returning to school after winter break in January, and she does not let the weather get her down. Conner also said she tries not to let the wintry weather get her down.

“But that’s not to say that I wouldn’t mind 70-degree days most of the time!” Coner admits.

Image Courtesy BBC

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