What is it about rain that makes us want to stay in bed?

It is dark when it rains and there isn’t the stimulation you get with bright sunshine. I like the rain, which is just as well as we get a lot of it over here. I like to hear it beating against my windows.

Rain makes good napping weather. It’s so nice and cozy inside. The rain gives us a feeling of being enclosed and safe. We want to snuggle down and hibernate.

Actually all weather is good napping weather.

Probably it’s the low barometric pressure that makes us feel drowsy when it rains (I’m guessing), but I’m content with a nonscientific explanation.

I don’t really know. I don’t think anybody else does either. But it is certainly true.

I think it’s an old, instinctive pleasure of feeling safe.

Maybe it’s the hypnotic beat of the pitter patter of the rain drops. Or, it’s the sudden feeling of (procrastination) not wanting to go out in the rain that make you go back to sleep.

You obviously don’t live in Seattle. If life stopped there every time it rained, it would never happen.

LOL!! Yes, I know Seattle, @marinelife! :) I think the suicide rate is high there, too!

It is.

Raining here, too and we’re enjoying it. We like to cuddle and whatnot in bed when it happens. The rain can be romantic.

I wonder if there might be an element of self preservation in it, something that harkens back to our prehistoric ancestors’ need to make themselves snug and safe in inclement weather.

I think it is the hypnotism of the patter, I think it’s our instinctive need for water and knowing it’s available, I think that water takes us all back to the womb, with Mother Nature as mommy.

I’m an Aquarian that’s afraid of all deep water, but give me rain, ponds and rivers and raging torrential views of the a powerful ocean and nothing can compare for me. It’s Heaven on earth.

Because it seems so cozy inside. I actually have several CD’s of rain storms, they help me get to sleep when I’m feeling restless. It’s also nice to Fluther to rain sounds : )

@Kardamom I’m gearing up for a Missouri tornado maybe…should be interesting. One time we watched one go right over us, yeah dumb but man it was so cool. For our honeymoon in Cancun we were the last plane to arrive before Hurricane Ivan hit, and from our balcony, that was one of the most magical things I’ve ever witnessed, just wow.

@KNOWITALL Yikes! That sounds scary. Did you take any pictures?

Oh, we have a few sipping a Modelo with an angry ocean behind us, but when it started it took all our attention. The ‘mayor’ wouldn’t let anyone drink for three days (selling alcohol anyway) and the beaches and pools were closed of course, but our balcony and the open air of the Miramar resort was incredible.

Rain is usually cold (except in Hawaii and other tropical places). In bed is warm. Unless you enjoy cold showers, (I’ve heard of people like that) why would you want to get up and out and into it. Pull up the covers and enjoy the pitter-patter as long as you can.

I agree with the people who say the lack of sunlight makes us sleepy.

Someone above said we feel safe. Maybe many animals out in the wild sleep during the rain, because they are even more governed by circadium rhythm than even human beings are, so instinctively we can catch up on sleep because we don’t have to worry about attack? I’m totally hypothesizing here. For the most part the higher you go on the food chain in the wild, the more that animal sleeps each day. Fewer predators, less worry about being attacked when less alert.

Also, maybe barometric pressure or ozone has something to do with it? As barometric pressure goes down it is safer to take cover. LOL. I was researching ozone a little and I guess during or after a rain there is more ozone in the air, which from what I understand is O3.

Sleeping patterns, on average, of mammals listed below, man being at the top of the food chain.

(Hyphotheses should be made on the basis of at least some evidence. Otherwise it is called guessing.)

Man needs about as much sleep as either a pig or a guinea pig and not as much as a cat or gerbil.Source

2 hrs:giraffe
3 hrs:donkey, horse, roe deer
4 hrs: elephant, goat, sheep, cow
7 hrs: dolphin
8 hrs: man, rabbit, pig, guinea pigs
9 hrs: mole, dog
10 hrs:chimpanzee, rhesus monkey, squirrel monkey, baboon, hedgehog
11 hrs: beaver, fox, jaguar
12 hrs: gorilla
13 hrs; chinchilla, wolf, raccoon, rat, mouse
14 hrs: hamster,
15 hrs: msture cat, squirrel, chipmunk, gerbil
17 hrs: owl monkey
18 hrs; aging cats
19 hrs: opossum
20 hrs: bat, the big cats after a kill.

@gailcalled Ok, now you have me googling just to show I did not pull it out of thin air.

http://switchzoo.com/profiles/giraffe.htm

http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan06/wild.aspx

No one is debating the sleeping patterns of the giraffe, on average.

Your second link is broken.

Giraffes only sleep two hours? Are they awake for two hours then sleep for two hours? It would drive me nuts having that much time on my hands!

@gailcalled It mentions the giraffes vulnerability to predators.

0–25 hours—Teenagers.

Well, if you’re living in tornado alley, don’t get to cozy until you check your local radar.

Yes I do! I don’t go check the weather every time it rains! I can feel the pressure in the air associated with tornadic activity. Besides, radar and weather.com are useless. Totally inaccurate.

Once, while I was at work, I went out at about 2:00 in the afternoon for a smoke. When I stepped out side I just froze. I just froze in my track, hand that had pushed the door open frozen in the air, as the door swung shut behind me. There was something in the air, the pressure, the humidity, something very bad. I thought, “Oh God. Somebody’s going to nailed today. Hope it’s not us.”
A few hours later OKC was blasted by an F5.