They say your eyes are the window to your soul, but we never imagined that the colour of your peepers could tell you so much about your mental health…
Until now, because new research has just revealed that those of us with brown eyes are much more likely to suffer from a common mood condition: seasonal affective disorder(SAD).
The NHS defines SAD as a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern. Sufferers tend to experience symptoms, including lethargy and a persistent low mood, in the autumn and winter, when they days are shorter. Their SAD will usually improve or disappear once the spring arrives.
The team, who presented their work at The British Psychological Society’s conference in Nottingham earlier today (3 May), studied 175 participants to determine the extent to which their mood varied with the seasons.
And they found that the mood of participants with brown eyes varied significantly more than that of those with lighter eyes.
The scientists believe this is all down to the amount of light entering our brains…
‘We know that light entering the brain causes a decrease in levels of melatonin,’ said study co-author Professor Lance Workman.
‘As blue eyes allow more light into the brain, it may be that this leads to a greater reduction in melatonin during the day and this is why people with lighter eyes are less prone to SAD.’
Who could have guessed that brown eyes would give you the blues?
