Spring fever: A distraction to enjoy

There’s a ‘natural’ distraction that could be taking you away from the work you need to do right now

The weather is suddenly nice. The sun is shining. And, if you’re like me, you’re finding yourself distracted by the blooming of spring.

Be it darting outside for a quick errand, driving with the windows down, taking the long way to walk somewhere or just that general feeling of restlessness, I think I have a case of "spring fever." But hold up—is that actually a thing?

A 2007 Scientific American article defines spring fever as:

"An illness that has been documented by poets for centuries. Its symptoms include a flushed face, increased heart rate, appetite loss, restlessness, and daydreaming."

(Hold on—I just peered outside my house and was distracted by a chirping bird. Okay, I'm back.)

The science of the shift

Is "spring fever" medically definable? According to the experts, it is less about a virus and more about our internal clocks.

"Spring fever is not a definitive diagnostic category," said Dr. Michael Terman, then-director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center. "But I would say it begins as a rapid and yet unpredictable fluctuating mood and energy state that contrasts with the relative low [of the] winter months that precede it."

A 2018 Better by TODAY article sheds a bit more light on the "condition." While it is far from a medically diagnosable illness, there is a biological reality to this seasonal condition.

Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine and a renowned seasonal affective disorder expert, sees these symptoms in his patients and friends alike.

"It manifests in different ways," Rosenthal says. "Sometimes it’s a sheer exuberance. People are smiling, laughing and celebrating the return of longer days and warmer weather. It’s a fever in the best sense of the word. We feel amorous. As the poet Tennyson said, ‘In spring, a young man’s fancy likely turns to thoughts of love.’"

With spring fever comes something else

One way to get a taste for spring, but not let it consume your attention is to make time for yourself. Some clarity breaks for sure.

I’m leaning into this distraction for now. However, just as I start to enjoy the "exuberance" and the warmer air, another condition is creeping in: seasonal allergies.

Between daydreaming and sneezing, it feels like a battle for my focus. But if the distraction is something new (and it’s finally baseball season), I think I can live with it.