Has your mood improved recently? It's no coincidence

"Now is the winter of our discontent."

The thought of sunshine makes us happy. Warm, golden, and brilliant, we bask in it - we cross the world to find it and we wake up elated when we find it is waiting for us outside. Why?

A new study by neuroscientists in Finland has linked the seasonal fluctuations in sunlight to real-world evidence in people's brains for the first time - they believe that opioid receptors, which are associated with our internal reward system and pleasure, are regulated by daylight hours.

Apparently, our socioemotional capacity peaks in spring - it is at this time we have the highest moods and sociability of the year.

So smile and make plans, your brain has already started preparing you for the influx of socialising.