Dumber in the Summer

Surely I had something to do today, but I can't remember what it was, so I'll just be here. 

So, you may have noticed I rarely post to Instagram lately. It's not because I have nothing going on-- I visited three countries in the last month, was in attendance at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, collected four new pairs of designer shoes and just finished Miami Swim Week. I posted exactly zero photos of any of this not because of some newfound desire for privacy (although I can't tell you how liberating it is to travel and not post any photos), but because I might actually be the laziest person in the world. I am too lazy to take photos, let alone post them to Instagram.


Instagram isn't the only area in which I am underperforming of late. I have also failed to correctly guess the date and day of the week far more than usual. I'm now wrong about whether or not today is Friday a startling nine times of out ten, up from the usual six. And this morning, I did a long overdue load of laundry only to realize after its completion that I didn't put any detergent into the machine. Because I don't have any detergent. Because I am too lazy to get detergent.

I can’t get anything done in the summer, which I’d long assumed was due to my body’s preference for the school-year calendar of September to May. Though I haven’t been in school for many years, I figured there was some lasting psychological impact which made my brain give up every June. Come September, though, I felt ready to start fresh (so much so that I treat it, more than January, as my New Year): reenergized about projects that have stalled, newly motivated, and just … smarter. Today, I am thrilled to announce that I was right — if not exactly for the reasons I thought. I really am dumber in the summer, and, I’m sorry to say my friends, so are you. 

A new study found that students who lived in air-conditioned buildings (where the temperature averaged 71 degrees) performed better on tests than students living in buildings without AC (which averaged almost 80 degrees). The tests were administered during a heat wave in Boston, and assessed students’ ability to perform basic addition and subtraction, and evaluated their cognitive speed and memory. Students were sent the tests on their phones twice a day, and took them online, from home. Those in the non-air-conditioned buildings scored lower than their counterparts, but they also answered their questions more slowly — researchers told NPR they found a “10 percent reduction in the number of correct responses per minute” among those without AC.

This finding is particularly relevant (and terrifying) given our warming planet, and the corresponding increase in heat waves. One of the study’s authors, Joe Allen, co-director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University, told NPR, “There’s evidence that our brains are susceptible to temperature abnormalities.” Their study, too, reflected a relatively small difference in temperature, with less than nine degrees between test groups. Their research didn’t assess whether one’s cognitive abilities decline in direct proportion to the increasing temperature, but it makes me wonder whether conditions might be even worse next month when temperatures regularly reach 100 degrees. It also makes me wonder if I should stop spending so much time in Miami.  Anyway, have a nice day.