Qld: Northerners officially mad over summer

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2001
Qld: Northerners officially mad over summer

By Jordan Baker

TOWNSVILLE, Dec 5 AAP - It's official - northern Australians go troppo in summer.

If living with crocodiles and snakes wasn't bad enough, psychologists today confirmed
the steamy heat of the wet season sends people in the tropics slightly mad.

The humidity, heat and rain create a Down Under version of Seasonal Affective Disorder
(SAD), usually linked with winter in northern Europe.

They cause crankiness and mild depression, disrupt short-term memory and reasoning
ability and make people less inclined to have sex.

Mango madness has long been legendary in the tropics and is said to cause a summer
spike in violence and drunkenness.

But Northern Territory University psychology department head Mary Morris said today
the fabled summer lunacy was based on fact.

"It certainly could be (likened to SAD) if you look at the marked decline in sunshine
we get during the wet," Dr Morris said.

"When it's darker, people are psychologically doomier and gloomier, so there are both
visual and physiological reasons for it."

Studies showed humidity hindered concentration, short-term memory, reasoning ability,
mental alertness and the ability to do two things at once, Dr Morris said.

"You've got all sorts of things going down that guarantee you'll go nuts," she said.

Flinders University sleep psychology expert Leon Lack said the tropical heat and humidity
upset sleeping patterns, affecting people's moods.

Three months of disrupted sleep left northerners cranky, distracted, depressed, stressed
and tired.

"The net effect is that people would have their sleep disrupted a bit over that whole
period of time," Dr Lack said.

"Then we can say that people's ability to perform effectively mentally and physically
will continue to deteriorate."

(People become) increasingly irritable, suffer mild depression and all the mood defects
of a chronic mild stress, the same sort of thing insomniacs suffer."

The humidity also took its toll on northern Australians' sex life, with many people
just too tired to make the effort, Dr Lack said.

"The extra energy required just to keep your body cool would tend to produce fatigue
effects and make you feel less inclined to feel aroused," he said.

AAP jb/sc/jnb/bwl r

KEYWORD: TROPPO

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