Will the blahs lift with the clouds?

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

You probably have experienced it these last few dreary weeks: Complaints about the weather that radiate into everything else under the sun. Friends and family tell me they are depressed - and not only because they can’t garden or go to the beach. A general gloominess is pervading their lives. They don't feel like working out. A friend of mine who adores cooking says she is getting take-out every night.

Only a glimmer of sun, they say, will chase the dark moods away.

Yet another rainy day in Boston recently (Globe photo/David Ryan)

Will it?

We have all have heard about seasonal affective disorder – aka winter doldrums that can last months that bright lights are supposed to help cure. And research shows that people who suffer from depression are hit particularly hard by long spates of rainy and cloudy weather.

But cloudy days, it turns out, can bring even the most cheery person down. In one 1980s experiment, Illinois residents were called on the telephone on cloudy and sunny days and asked, in general, how satisfied they were with their lives. Those under gloomy skies reported less life satisfaction. Interestingly, however, when respondents were asked to explicitly consider the weather first, their satisfaction went up, possibly because they realized the cloudy weather was clouding their perceptions.

There are other reasons to be in evil spirits in the rain. Last year, Aberdeen University researchers found that dismal weather made it harder for people to lose weight – and linked it to low levels of vitamin D that is produced in skin when exposed to sunlight.

And many people report join pain and migraine headaches when weather turns damp and barometric pressure changes.

But if that bad mood is pervading your normal sense of well-being, take heart at this research: Australian researchers reported five years ago that people in bad or sad moods have better memories. The surprise finding showed that people in happy moods had unreliable memories, worse judgment and critical thinking skills compared to those in “negative” moods.

Researchers tested people’s recall of staged eyewitness events such as a purse snatching. They determined a negative mood is smart, evolutionary speaking. That’s because it makes people more wary of their environment and “triggers more systematic, more attentive, more vigilant information processing.”

It’s supposed to be cloudy or rain for the next three days.