Brighten up: Can colour really change the way we feel?

On a grey day when you’re feeling blue and you’ve spent too much time on social media getting green with envy at other people’s perfect lives, it’s all too easy to sink into a black mood. Could a change of outfit put you back in the pink? The link between colour and emotion is written into our language. But do the colours with which we surround ourselves actually have the power to change the way we feel?

The ancient Egyptians certainly thought so. They were among the first to practise “chromotherapy”, using coloured minerals, stones and dyes to treat the sick. They also created special rooms in their temples where they used refracted light to “bathe” their patients in colour. A thousand years later, in the 11th century, Persian physician and philosopher Avicenna drew up a chart that matched colours to what he believed to be their physiological effects. He proposed that while red increased blood flow, blue could reduce it. Meanwhile he thought that yellow helped reduce inflammation and could ease muscle pain.

More recently, there have been myriad scientific studies of the effects of colour on human physiology and psychology and Avicenna’s theories have been borne out. Red really does increase blood pressure. Blue really is calming. After blue lights were installed on the platforms of Toyko’s Yamamote railway line, attempts by people to take their own lives there reduced dramatically.

What Avicenna didn’t know is that the light sensitive cells in our retinae, known as cones, don’t just send messages to the visual cortex. They also send signals to the hypothalamus, that part of the brain which controls the regulation of sleep, appetite and body temperature. When blue/green light hits the retina, it triggers the hypothalamus to release cortisol to wake us up. That blue/green light doesn’t have to come from the sun. It can come from your screen, hence the advice to turn off devices an hour before bedtime.

Red is probably the most commonly studied colour. As the colour of blood, it’s naturally the colour of arousal. In nature, it’s the colour of a female chimp’s bum when she’s in heat. In human society too, it seems to signal sexual availability and approachability. In 2008, Andrew Elliot and Daniela Nesta of the University of Rochester showed straight male subjects pictures of women and asked them to rate their attractiveness. Woman photographed against a red background were more highly rated than those against other colours. Two years later, Elliot and Nesta discovered that the red effect works for men too. So a red shirt it is for that important first date.

It’s thought that colours gained their meaning and effect in two ways. First because of the way they appear in the natural world. Secondly, through the context we’ve put on certain hues.

Purple seems luxurious because for centuries it was a colour reserved for the nobility, as the dye was so expensive to produce. In ancient Rome, only the emperor could wear it. Meanwhile, perhaps blue has gained a reputation for purity by association with the Virgin Mary. So maybe dark grey makes you feel anxious because it’s the colour of your old school uniform?

Jules Standish, author of How Not to Wear Black and The Essential Guide To Mindful Dressing (www.colourconsultancy.co.uk), knows the importance of choosing the right colours in what we wear. She sees the results in her work as a “colour counsellor”, advising corporations and individuals on how to use colour to convey a particular image. She says: “I can see an immediate difference when someone who doesn’t normally wear colour finds the shade that’s right for them. It changes their energetic level. They’ll look healthier, happier and younger, which in turn makes them feel more confident.”

Healthier? Happier? Younger? More confident? That pretty much ticks all the boxes for what we look for in a wellness treatment. All from a simple change of clothes.

Standish suggests: “Ask yourself ‘what colour do I need today?’ All of the colours have their own special benefits. Yellow is very popular currently which is fabulous to see as it represents joy and enhances creative activity. This season’s Pantone colour, living coral, suggests happiness, sociability and adventure. Green is all about harmony, balance and new beginnings so is a brilliant colour to spring clean your wardrobe with.”

Changing your wardrobe to change your mood sounds like an expensive fix, but Standish says: “Getting some colour to brighten up an outfit can be as simple and cost effective as adding a scarf, which can also give an instant face lift if worn in the right shade to harmonise with the underlying skin tone.”

And if you have to wear a uniform for work? Luckily Standish believes that we don’t even have to be able to a see colour to take advantage of its qualities. Red undies work just as well as a red scarf. She recalls a soberly dressed student at one of her lectures who revealed he was wearing red pants because “I was exhausted. I didn’t feel like standing out but wanted the energy boost.” He said it worked.

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Standish also suggests: “Sleeping in coloured nightwear or coloured bed sheets is a great way to feel the benefits.” For an even easier temporary fix, you can simply have colourful flowers around the house or office.

In definite need of an energy boost of my own, yesterday morning I put aside my faithful navy blue jumper in favour of a sweater in a vibrant spring green to see if I could harness some of that harmony and balance which Standish described. The green sweater had been languishing in the back of my wardrobe because while I love the colour, I worry it makes me look like a pea on my way to a St Patrick’s Day party.

Putting aside my fear of looking like a legume, the first thing I noticed yesterday morning was that I needed less make-up to look awake. My friend on the customer services counter at the supermarket told me I looked as sunny as the weather (and it was sunny, for once). I left with a bounce in my step that lasted for the rest of the day.

Was it the compliment or was my hypothalamus being tricked into giving me an extra shot of cortisol? Regardless, I powered through a copy edit I’d been putting off all week. I remained calm throughout half an hour on hold to my bank’s call centre. Later, on the way into town for an evening with friends, I missed the bus and didn’t care.

I walked the three mile journey easily. The dodgy disc in my back even seemed to settle down. In the pub, my friend told me my skin was looking good and wanted to know if I’d changed my moisturiser. “No,” I told her. “Only my jumper.” Back home, I wore the jumper to bed (it was unseasonably cold) and slept like the proverbial baby. 

Was it the green jumper that made my day run so much more smoothly than usual? Who can really tell? But it seems to me that if there’s the slightest chance that putting on a brighter sweater could mean a better day, we should all choose a more colourful life.