It's not you, it's the sun.
By Nicole Weaver — Written on Mar 19, 2015
Have you been moodier than usual over the past week? Perhaps, your sleeping patterns have been thrown off? Well, you might've chalked it up to a rough week at work or bad luck, but here's what REALLY might be causing your bad mood: a solar flare.
On March 11, the sun had a huge solar flare that sent out a large amount of radio communication our way. It looks like even today we're experiencing the effects of this storm.
All of this sun craziness affects people's mood, ability to sleep, and other aspects of people's health.
Those include the central nervous system, the stomach lining, brain activity, and psycho-physiological responses. There is a very long laundry list of side effects including dizziness, heart palpitations, nausea, short memory problems, and more! (Of course, if you were out drinking on St. Patty's Day, chances are some of those symptoms might be a hangover, but we digress.)
"Solar storms desynchronize our circadian rhythm (biological clock). The pineal gland in our brain is affected by the electromagnetic activity, and [solar storms cause] the gland to produce excess melatonin, the brain's built in 'downer' that helps us sleep. 'The circadian regulatory system depends on repeated environmental cues to [synchronize] internal clocks," explains psychiatrist Kelly Posner, Columbia University to Feel Guide. "Magnetic fields may be one of these environmental cues."
Yikes. Doesn't sound good.
Looks like there isn't much we can do about it but drink chamomile tea to get some sleep and ride it out!