'Tis the season to fall in love...

In the first quatrain of his 73rd sonnet, Shakespeare used autumn as a metaphor for aging

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

But in the face of deterioration and mortality, Shakespeare reminds us, love can not only endure, it can grow stronger.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long

Okay, so maybe you don’t like poetry that much. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you hate it as much as autumn. It is the time for colds and flu and feeling miserable. We are only now starting to approach the half way mark until the end of 2013 and the falling leaves inevitably remind us of the passing of things. It is in this time of year that people all around start feeling depressed. Some even suffer from a form of depression called seasonal affective disorder when the days shorten, the nights get longer and temperatures drop.

Well, Prof. Till Roenneberg, a chronobiologist at the Institute for Medical Psychology in Munich, knows that autumn totally bums people out. What is a chronobiologist? It’s the dude in the white coat that studies a specialized bundle of cells that regulates our cyclical processes or biological rhythms (brought on by example: seasonal changes) and how that affects our physiology and behaviour.

Roenneberg discovered that we bounce back from the cold autumn blues by seeking to create more warmth on the inside. We fight the autumn depression with… falling in love!

You are going to love this.

The article in the Business Insider goes on to explain that Roenneberg discovered that in the autumn and winter months the activity in the right frontal lobe declines. This part of the brain is where sadness, fear, and aggression nest. Parallel to this, the four small areas in the brain that produce feelings of tenderness are particularly well supplied with blood.

This increases the levels of the feel-good chemical dopamine in our brains. This is the same chemical which is released when we eat chocolate, take cocaine, win money or fall in love. Research led by psychiatrist Daniel Eisenberg at the National Institute of Mental Health found people scanned in the autumn and winter had an average dopamine signal 4.3 percent greater than those scanned in the spring and summer. What does this mean? Increased dopamine levels give us more energy, more motivation, and more optimism. Yeah!

                                                                                                 

Testosterone levels – in men AND women – are also highest in autumn. Yup, both sexes show an increase in the hormone of lust. In men the study done by Dr. Michael Eisenberg shows that follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) that stimulates production of sperm and Luteinizing hormone (LH) that stimulates production of testosterone peaks in autumn and early winter. The higher sperm count might offer an explanation of the peak times for human births in the South Africa during January to March – 9 months after the high testosterone levels of the preceding autumn and winter season. This extra testosterone also boosts concentration, confidence, and feelings of competitiveness. It also subconsciously makes us more attractive, and more attracted, to those around us.

Oestrogen also showed higher levels in the autumn and winter while the female hormonal glands are the most active in the autumn, too. Some researchers suggest that this is programmed because autumn conception allows for babies to be born in summer which not only has a higher survival rate but it’s also when Vitamin D is best available for strengthening bones and immune systems.

Okay, so autumn stimulates our hormones, but it also stimulates our desire to talk. We apparently find the heated protected space of our own homes makes it easier to exchange thoughts that during the warmer times of year don’t even occur to us. In autumn weather, we not only go deeper into ourselves, but we focus more on our partner as well.

It’s like Mother Nature is nudging us to fall in love!

Perhaps also encouraging love connections: cosy autumn fashion. If you are like me you hate baring your flesh over the summer. Autumn and winter are the most stylish seasons. According to the findings of anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher, a woman in more covered-up autumn clothes may also appear to be ‘mate material’. Basically this means that when a man is looking for a long-term relationship, he’s not as interested in the girl in the very short dress and her 34DD’s hanging out, because he’d have to do a lot of what she calls ‘mate guarding’ from all the ‘mate poachers.’ In other words, winter fashion beats the summer slut in the long run.

Okay, I’ve gone all geeky with this post but the further a country is from the equator, the more its residents notice the seasons. So, my fellow single South Africans embrace the current season. Just know that you will need to distinguish between the autumn hormones going around and whether he or she is really into you. Lust is not love.

Yup, the rules of attraction can't be written in stone - which is why love leaves even the best of us mystified. I’m thinking I need to look into the chemistry of love a bit more.

For now I’ll just work on recovering from the flu bug that has me bed ridden. I need to get back out there. ‘Tis the season… and I say: bring it on!