7 Reasons June Babies Are Extra Special

There are tons of things to love about June – it’s the unofficial start of summer, kids are getting out of school, and the weather is about as close to perfect as it’s gonna get for most of us. And if you’re expecting a baby in June, or you’re going to celebrate a June birthday, well, there’s even more to love about this month.

Of course, all babies are special and unique, but if you’re expecting a baby this month, there are a few things that set them apart from the crowd and make them uniquely awesome.

1. They’re night owls.

First, the bad news: A June baby is likely to keep you up all night. A study in the journal Sleep found that babies born in the spring and summer went to bed later than babies born in the fall and winter.

2. But they’ll have a strong internal clock.

On the other hand, research suggests summer babies tend to have a more forceful internal clock than others. So maybe they’ll be able to wake themselves up for school when they’re teenagers and you can catch up on some of that sleep you lost out on all those years.

3. They are little rays of sunshine.

Those late nights will be made a bit more tolerable by the fact that your little June-bug is likely to have a sunny disposition. This study shows that there’s a strong association between season of birth and personality. And according to Time, “Summer babies have some of the same hyperthymic characteristics as spring babies, but that can be offset by cyclothymia — rapid cycling between high and low moods.”

Other studies show that babies born in the summer are less likely to have seasonal affective disorder (SAD) than winter babies. The theory is that the type and amount of sunlight of summer makes newborns better able to handle changes in the environment that the limited sunlight that winter offers. And a European study also found that summer kids are generally more optimistic.

But warning: their positive thinking can be a bit excessive sometimes.

4. With all that (sometimes excessive) positivity can come some pretty dramatic mood swings.

New research has found that the time of year you’re born can impact your risk for mood disorders, with a study done by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology finding that people born in the summer are more likely to experience mood swings and greater shifts in temperament. According to Readers’ Digest, the lead researcher for this study, Assistant Professor Xenia Gonda, reported that the season of birth influences the level of dopamine and serotonin — the two chemicals in the brain that help impact levels of happiness or sadness.

“Dr. Gonda’s research showed that people born in summer are much more prone to mood swings, which means that there is something about being born in summer that influences dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain,” said Reader’s Digest. “This doesn’t mean that summer children are more likely to develop mental disorders like bipolar or schizophrenia later in life—but they might be pretty crabby in the mornings.”

Then again, when you’re staying up until all hours of the night, you’re bound to be a little crabby in the morning.

5. They are more likely to be tall.

Some folks speculate that, thanks to all that extra sunshine, babies born in the summer get more vitamin D, which makes them more likely to be tall.

6. They are less likely to be CEOs.

Research has shown that summer babies are less likely to be CEOs or famous celebrities, speculating that because of school cut-off dates are typically in August or September, June and July babies are often the youngest in their class.

“Older children within the same grade tend to do better than the youngest, who are less intellectually developed,” the study’s co-author, Maurice Levi, professor of international finance at the University of British Columbia, said. “Early success is often rewarded with leadership roles and enriched learning opportunities, leading to future advantages that are magnified throughout life.”

Then again, given the recent shift toward redshirting (delaying the start of kindergarten for kids’ born in June, July, or August), this trend could move in the other direction by the time your little one hits the workforce.

7. You aren’t pregnant during the summer.

And let’s be honest, that is BY FAR the biggest perk of them all.