Remember when I, somewhat tongue in cheek, mentioned Seattle’s heat wave being correlated with divorce rates? Well, I happened across this article a few days later: Heat Waves Lead to Hot Tempers: Here’s Why, with it stating things like:
And as the temperature gets hotter — so do our tempers. Summer heat waves make us act like cranky, whiny toddlers, experts say, and studies have even shown that as the degrees tick up, so do crime rates.
Well, crime rates in this family, in the form of yelling at my sweet toddler, have certainly increased. Husband-wife contention have also increased, too, but, this explains it:
An increase in body temperature causes an increase in physical arousal – your heart rate goes up and your blood pressure rises as your poor body tries to cool itself off, explains Dr. Jeff Borenstein, president of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in Great Neck, N.Y. And that can be bad news for your behavior, because increased physical arousal is known to be linked to aggressive behavior.
Ugh. So aggression has an uptick in the summer months, but that is NO excuse for yelling at my kid, or cursing out my husband, right? Riiiigghht? The study also mentions dehydration and the increase in iced coffee and how that effects anxiety. I guess I’m totally guilty of that, drinking caffeine to help with my sleep deprivation, but it’s increasing my anxiety. Sigh. What a cycle I get caught in!
boof & monk-monk 