If you haven’t taken down your Christmas lights yet, do not fret. Instead of being in for ‘bad luck’, you could actually be unintentionally improving your mental health.
Environmental and design psychologist Dr. Sally Augustin reckons that it could actually be good for you to hang fairy lights all year round.
She told Mail Online: We like to think we’re so different from animals, but we are actually very responsive to our senses.
“Developing on the savanna, where our current sensory systems developed, when we would see warm light, it was often a campfire at the end of the day, signalling cooking and positive experiences.”
She also explained that we have adapted to associate warmer lights with positive feelings and added: “When we experience warmer coloured lights, candlelight or light from warmer bulbs, it puts us in a more positive mood, which is great for getting along with others.”
So basically, if you can’t be bothered to take down your Christmas lights this year, you now have a perfect excuse. Leaving up could improve your general mood and help you get on better with us.
Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to justify the fact our tree is still up yet, but we’re working on it.
