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According to a British study, people’s moods are generally at their best early in the day and at their worst late in the evening.
It’s well known that moods change with the seasons, the days of the week, and even throughout the day (diurnal). But it turns out that things “look better in the morning”, as British scientists discovered in a major study by University College London.
As part of this study, 49,218 participants (76.5% of whom were women) regularly completed questionnaires and indicated the time of day, day of the week, and season. They were asked, “How happy did you feel in the past week?” “How satisfied were you with your life?” or “To what extent did you find the things you do in your life meaningful?” Almost one million responses were analyzed. The researchers also recorded the participants’ age and gender, ethnicity, level of education, employment status, place of residence, and physical or mental illness.
The results showed that people generally felt “best” when they woke up but “worst” at midnight: “In general, things seem to be better in the morning,” they wrote. They also found that people’s mental health fluctuated more on weekends, while it was more stable during the week. The mood is best on Tuesdays and in the summer.
However, there was no evidence that loneliness differed on different days of the week. According to the researchers, changes in mental health and well-being over the course of the day could be explained by physical changes related to the internal clock. For example, cortisol—a hormone that regulates mood, motivation, and anxiety—peaks shortly after waking up and reaches its lowest level around bedtime.
However, the differences between weekdays and weekends could also be due to factors such as the sequence of daily activities, which are likely to differ on weekends and weekdays. Study author Dr. Feifei Bu: “Our results suggest that, on average, people’s mental health and well-being are better in the morning and worse at midnight.”
- source: heute.at/picture: pixabay.com
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