My mental health problems began to escalate when I was in my teens. Always sensitive as a child, I began showing signs of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when I was around 11.
Multiple times a night I would get up to check the front door was shut. Or I would silently apologise in my head to people I passed in the street in case I had somehow offended them. And my OCD dictated that all these actions had to be made three consecutive times in a row.
Spells of depression have recurred throughout my life, along with crushing anxiety and occasional panic attacks.
By the time I was doing my postgraduate research at Cambridge University, where I studied psychology, I was experiencing prolonged spells of severe depression that sometimes left me completely incapacitated.
I struggled on – people didn’t talk much about their feelings back then – but I have since been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and OCD.
Significantly, I also have SAD – seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that occurs in the darker winter seasons, linked to reduced levels of the pleasure hormone dopamine caused by reduced sunlight. My SAD starts in July, the moment the wonderful all-night glow disappears from the sky where I live in the Sidlaw Hills in eastern Scotland.
Considering all this, it might surprise you that I have also experienced many positive benefits on my mental and physical health from what might be dubbed ‘bad weather’.
And the research backs me up. Bad weather – rain, hail, wind and snow – can be good for us, improving everything from cognition and immunity, to our cardiovascular system and optimism levels.
Bad weather – rain, hail, wind and snow – can be good for us, improving everything from cognition and immunity, to our cardiovascular system and optimism levels (stock image)
Discovering all this led me to write a new book on the subject – for as well as being a professor of psychology, I am a weather fanatic, creating forensic records for the past 30 years of weather in my local area.
Watching the weather has taught me important psychological coping skills –acceptance being one of them. I’ve learned to enjoy ‘bad’ weather and such acceptance is one of the most powerful non-pharmaceutical interventions for depression and anxiety there is.
Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that the weather has saved my life. It may sound trite, but seeing that even the worst weather can change has made me realise that my own mental darkness will pass, too.
This, as well as research that agrees with me, may help you see the positives about a bad spell of weather, too…
RAIN BOOST
Rain is an all-round health booster, particularly for our stress levels.
This is because it has a predictable sound pattern, close to what scientists call ‘pink noise’ – this is like white noise, but sounds slightly less hissy. Pink noise helps us to relax and promotes healthy sleep.
Studies show pink noise shifts brain waves to the patterns associated with relaxation. Other studies have found we feel less pain and stress when hearing the sound of rain.
Rain can also elevate our immunity. When raindrops hit dry soil, they form bubbles that carry chemicals from the soil into the air. As well as a fresh, calming fragrance, these chemicals – most notably a compound called geosmin – boost the immune system, reduce inflammation and increase levels of the happy hormone serotonin, studies show.
Our cognition has also been shown to get a shot in the arm on a rainy day: a 2014 study of bank workers in Japan found their productivity rates were significantly higher when it was rainy.
A one-inch increase in rainfall was linked to each worker spending 1.3 per cent less time on each transaction – which sounds minimal, but over 100 workers, this equated to an extra member of staff being required for the same tasks. The researchers argued that when it was sunny, workers were distracted by the idea of being outside.
POWER OF STORMS
I love nothing more than going out in a thunderstorm – the power of nature is exhilarating.
Professor Trevor Harley began showing signs of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when he was around 11
But thunderstorms also make changes to the atmosphere, among them producing ions (i.e. charged particles) in the air.
In a thunderstorm, positive ions migrate to the top of the cloud, and negative ions accumulate at the base. These are then attracted to the positively charged ground, which results in lightning.
Lightning generates more ions which are further attracted to the ground, leading to a temporary accumulation of negative ions near the surface.
Negative ions may kill mould, bacteria and viruses in the air – and remove particulate matter (tiny particles such as dust, smoke and soot), which helps with allergies.
They may even help with postoperative pain, research shows, perhaps by reducing stress and inflammation.
Studies, including one in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in 2018, found negative ions also improve the function of the nervous, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems, by reducing inflammation through removing pollutants and allergens from the air.
As for mental health, a 2013 review of studies showed that a high level of negative ions around us helps with depression, particularly SAD. This may be because they have been linked to higher serotonin levels in the brain and help us feel more relaxed and less anxious.
…AND WIND
One moment I will never forget is attempting to birdwatch in North Wales as 60mph winds blew. It was frightening and awe-inspiring all at once. Certainly, the cobwebs were well and truly blown away.
Some researchers have found wind to have a positive mental effect: in 2024, a paper in the journal NeuroLaunch suggested that the feel of wind on our skin increases the amounts of the feel-good chemicals, serotonin and dopamine, in the brain.
LET IT SNOW
In the winter of 2010, I was cracking up. I had a heavy workload and was keeping up with my research, supervising graduate students, sitting on national committees – and trying to write a book. I was exhausted.
And then it started to snow. It continued, on and off, for 11 days.
I tried walking down the drive to our garage, but the snow was coming over the tops of my Wellington boots.
But the more heavily the snow fell, the lighter my heart became.
I felt rejuvenated and I was able to face the world again.
I had experienced what psychotherapists call a ‘reframing’, the process of changing the way we look at things.
Being in – and receptive to – nature can help us to reframe, and of all the natural phenomena that can transform our perspective, snow is known to be one of the most powerful.
While green grass reflects only 25 per cent of the light that falls on it, freshly fallen snow reflects 80 per cent or more. Light boxes used to treat SAD typically emit 10,000 lux, but a snowy landscape on a bright winter’s day measures around 20,000 lux – not far off that of a summer’s day.
Fallen and falling snow also reduces the complexity of the auditory world because of the muffling effect it creates. The result is that our senses receive a less varied input than usual – a phenomenon called ‘sensory habituation’ by psychologists. Such a reduction can make us feel serene.
Similar to thunder, snow also increases the concentration of negative ions in the air close to the ground, thanks to friction between snow’s ice crystals – and therefore has positive impacts on depression and more.
Professor Trevor Harley is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Dundee. Adapted from Head In The Clouds by Professor Trevor Harley (DK Red, £16.99) to be published May 21. © Professor Trevor Harley 2026. To order a copy for £15.29 (offer valid to 30/05/26; UK P&P free on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937
