Scientists Report That People Mentally Feel Better And Brighter In The Morning
In the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, scientists have found that generally, the world feels better and brighter in the morning when you wake up compared to evenings. The findings, which were published in the journal BMJ Mental Health, said that people start the day with the best state of mind and end in the worst, around midnight if the individual usually stays up that late.
Additionally, mental health struggles tend to spike during weekends compared to the weekdays. The study itself was led by the University College London.
“Generally, things do seem better in the morning.”
One’s own mental health and well-being is a very specific experience that varies among everyone. It’s subject to change over short and long periods of time based on the individual’s life experiences.
This study, however, marks one of the most comprehensive in research on how the time of day impacts the intensity of one’s struggles.
The data from the study began in March 2020 as a UCL Covid-19 social study. It involved regular monitoring of the participants into November 2021, and more analysis until March 2022.
The entirety of the study involved about 1 million survey responses from nearly 50,000 adults.
Some of the questions throughout these surveys included: “In the past week, how happy did you feel?”, “How satisfied have you been with your life?”, and “To what extent have you felt the things you are doing in your life are worthwhile?”
Researchers also ensured to take into consideration every person’s age, health, and occupation/work schedules. They specifically found that things like happiness and life satisfaction were higher on Mondays and Fridays.
It’s important to note that logistically, this was an observational study, meaning there’s no direct way to establish cause, especially considering how each person has their own emotional responses and experiences.
“The changes in mental health and wellbeing across the day might be explained by the physiological changes associated with the body clock,” the researchers suggested.
“For example, cortisol [a hormone that regulates mood, motivation and fear] peaks shortly after waking and reaches its lowest levels around bedtime,” they said.
Dr Feifei Bu, from UCL’s department of behavioural science and health, said: “Our findings suggest that on average, people’s mental health and wellbeing are better in the morning and worse at midnight.”
“We drew on a large sample of repeated data – nearly a million survey responses from 49,000 participants over two years. However, this pattern could reflect when people choose to respond to the survey, rather than a direct effect of time of day. For example, those already feeling better in the morning might be more likely to engage with the survey at that time,” Dr. Bu said.
“While these findings are intriguing, they need to be replicated in other studies that fully account for this potential bias. If validated, this could have important practical implications. Researchers investigating people’s mental health and wellbeing should take into account the time of day people respond.”
“Mental health support services might consider adjusting resources to match fluctuating needs across the day – for instance, prioritising late-night availability.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
