It Might As Well Be Spring

Rogers and Hammerstein in their popular song, "It Might As Well Be Spring", from the 1945 Broadway Musical " Sate Fair" equate the feelings of falling in love with the feelings that people get when spring arrives. The Broadway show, provides a glimpse into the life of the farming Frake family and their three-day adventure at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines in 1946. While parents Abel and Melissa are hoping to win a few blue ribbons, siblings Margy and Wayne are more interested in finding romance on the midway

Come April and May, a strange illness sets in. It's a phenomenon that poets have documented for centuries. In a flurry of psychological and sexual renewal, millions of men and women of the Northern Hemisphere experience rapid increases in mood and energy, in start contrast to the lows felt during the winter time. But is this so-called spring fever a real biological phenomenon or have the poets simply led us all to believe in fairy tales?

Some of the symptoms of "spring fever" include a flushed face, increased heart rate, restlessness, daydreaming, and the urge to fall in love. Maybe these frisky feelings could be a result of getting more sunlight. Variations in the length of the day are associated with changes in levels of melatonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of sleep. Melatonin also plays a role in depression. That's why the incidence of depression goes up in the fall and winter. No wonder we are so happy when the days get longer and warmer, were sick of being cooped up, We want to be outside doing fun things like flying a kite,  taking a leisurely bike ride, a walk on the beach, or playing golf.

Whether the so-called spring fever is a real biological phenomenon or not, it is clear from studies that at least some of the symptoms have a basis in biology. But in the end the experts believe that it all essentially boils down to hormones!

In case you forgot the words to the song "It Might As Well Be Spring" here they are:

I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm,

I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string,

I'd say that I had spring fever,

But I know it isn't spring,

I'm as starry eyed and gravely discontented,

Like a nightingale without a song to sing,

Oh, why should I have spring fever,

When I know it isn't even spring?

I keep wishing I were somewhere else,

Walking down a strange new street,

Hearing words I have never heard,

From a man I'm yet to meet.

I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams,

I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing,

I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud.

Or a robin or a bluebird on the wing,

But I feel so gay in a melancholy way,

That it might as well be spring,

It might as well be, might as well be,

It might as well be spring.