“The darkest hour is simply earlier than daybreak.”
Our temper or feeling may certainly enhance as evening offers technique to morning, however is there scientific fact behind this? For anybody who has felt the crushing weight of midnight nervousness solely to seek out the expertise dissipates because the solar rises after a sleepless evening, the reply might sound apparent. But till just lately, we lacked strong proof about how our psychological well being fluctuates all through the day.
Diurnal temper variation—the phenomenon the place temper systematically adjustments throughout the day—has been recognised as a core characteristic of despair for many years (Wirz-Justice, 2008). Many individuals with despair expertise morning lows, afternoon slumps, and night worsening (Wirz-Justice, 2008). These patterns replicate the profound affect of our organic clocks on psychological well being. The circadian system, managed by a grasp clock in our mind, orchestrates near-24-hour rhythms in hormone secretion (like cortisol and melatonin), neurotransmitter exercise, and physiological processes that instantly influence our temper (Walker et al., 2020). This organic clockwork helps clarify why sleep disruption and circadian misalignment are so tightly linked to temper problems. A earlier Psychological Elf weblog has explored how circadian rhythms affect our expertise of suicidal ideas.
We additionally know that seasonal adjustments profoundly have an effect on wellbeing. The shortening days and decreased gentle publicity of winter can disrupt circadian rhythms and are related to decrease temper, typically triggering seasonal affective dysfunction (SAD) in weak people (Amendolara et al., 2025), and decrease total life satisfaction (as mentioned in this Psychological Elf weblog by Melanie de Lange).
Now, a brand new examine by Bu and colleagues affords unprecedented insights into time-of-day patterns of psychological well being and wellbeing, analysing practically 1 million observations from over 49,000 adults throughout the COVID-19 pandemic interval.
Many individuals with despair expertise morning lows, afternoon slumps, and night worsening, reflecting the affect of our organic clocks on our psychological well being.
Strategies
The researchers analysed information from the College Faculty London COVID-19 Social Research, which collected repeated measurements from 49,218 adults in England between March 2020 and March 2022. Contributors accomplished questionnaires at varied occasions all through the day, offering a pure experiment to look at diurnal patterns. The examine didn’t require folks to fill out surveys at particular occasions. As a substitute, researchers despatched out survey invites and let folks reply every time was handy for them. This created a pure experiment the place they may see how folks’s psychological well being assorted relying on after they selected to reply.
The examine measured six points of psychological well being and wellbeing:
- Melancholy: Affected person Well being Questionnaire-9, a 9-item questionnaire screening for depressive signs.
- Anxiousness: Generalised Anxiousness Dysfunction-7, a 7-item software measuring nervousness signs.
- Happiness: Single-item measure representing hedonic wellbeing (pleasure-focused).
- Life satisfaction: Single-item measure additionally a part of hedonic wellbeing.
- Feeling life is worth it: Single-item measure representing eudemonic wellbeing (meaning-focused).
- Loneliness: UCLA Loneliness Scale-3, a 3-item questionnaire for social wellbeing
Knowledge have been analysed throughout linear mixed-effects fashions, testing how time of day, day of the week, season, and 12 months affected every consequence.
Practically 50,000 adults accomplished temper assessments at varied occasions all through the day over two years throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outcomes
The examine initially included practically 50,000 contributors and principally consisted of ladies (76.4%), extremely educated folks (68.1% had levels), and lacked ethnic minorities (5.9%). To handle this bias, researchers used a statistical method referred to as “weighting” – basically adjusting the numbers so the outcomes would higher characterize the final English grownup inhabitants. This didn’t imply excluding folks out of the examine; as a substitute, it meant giving extra significance to responses from underrepresented teams. After this adjustment, the pattern regarded far more like England’s precise inhabitants: the ultimate pattern comprised 50.8% girls, 34.2% with larger schooling, and 14.6% from ethnic minority backgrounds. The age vary was effectively unfold out, and about 1 in 5 folks (20.2%) self-reported having been recognized with a psychological well being situation.
Time-of-day patterns
The findings reveal a transparent diurnal sample: folks typically get up feeling their greatest and really feel progressively worse because the day wears on, reaching their lowest level round midnight. This sample was remarkably constant throughout a number of psychological well being measures:
- Melancholy and nervousness signs have been lowest within the morning and steadily elevated all through the day, peaking at midnight.
- Hedonic wellbeing (happiness and life satisfaction) confirmed morning peaks, declined sharply till noon, after which confirmed a small night restoration, earlier than dropping to their lowest at midnight.
- Eudemonic wellbeing (feeling life is worth it) had probably the most dramatic variation, with a outstanding morning peak, steep noon drop, notable night restoration, and sharp decline at midnight.
- Social wellbeing (loneliness) remained comparatively steady all through the day, displaying the least time-of-day variation.
Day-of-week patterns
Psychological well being additionally assorted considerably by day of the week:
- Melancholy and nervousness have been highest mid-week (Wednesday/Thursday), suggesting a “midweek stoop” impact.
- Wellbeing measures confirmed larger variation on weekends in comparison with weekdays, with sharper morning peaks and steeper night declines.
- Tuesday and Wednesday morning disrupted the standard sample – folks skilled larger despair and nervousness regardless of the final morning aid, presumably reflecting work-related stress early within the week.
Seasonal results
The examine discovered strong seasonal patterns in psychological well being:
- Summer time confirmed the most effective psychological well being throughout all measures, with decrease despair/nervousness and better wellbeing scores.
- Winter had the poorest psychological well being outcomes, in keeping with the well-known “winter blues” phenomenon.
- Spring and autumn fell between these extremes, displaying intermediate ranges of psychological well being.
Yr-on-year enhancements
Apparently, psychological well being steadily improved throughout the examine interval (2020-2022), with all measures displaying higher scores in later years. This seemingly displays adaptation to pandemic situations and gradual easing of restrictions.
These findings counsel our psychological well being follows day by day, weekly, and seasonal rhythms, with morning typically being our psychological “peak” and late nights our “trough”.
From daybreak to nightfall, temper fluctuates; peaking within the morning and dipping at midnight.
Conclusions
The authors concluded:
Typically, issues do certainly appear higher within the morning. Folks typically reported the worst psychological well being and wellbeing late within the day and in winter, and there was extra variation on the weekends. Wanting throughout completely different points of psychological well being and wellbeing, hedonic [pleasure] and eudemonic [happiness] wellbeing had probably the most variation, and social well- being was most steady.
For most individuals, psychological well being was greatest within the morning, dipped mid-week, and was higher in summer time than winter. Happiness and life function assorted probably the most throughout the day and seasons.
Strengths and limitations
This examine’s best energy is unprecedented scale – over 49,000 contributors accomplished practically 1 million observations over two years. The repeated measures design tracked the identical folks over time to see how their very own temper modified all through the day, quite than simply evaluating completely different people. By letting folks full survey naturally throughout their day by day routines, researchers captured real-world patterns as a substitute of synthetic laboratory situations. The excellent method – measuring all the things from despair to life satisfaction – offers us an entire image of psychological wellbeing.
Nevertheless, there are a number of limitations. Most significantly, your entire examine happened throughout COVID-19 (2020-2022), when lockdowns and distant work utterly disrupted regular routines. Pandemic nervousness and isolation seemingly influenced temper patterns in ways in which wouldn’t happen in regular occasions. The examine was additionally restricted to England, the place daylight differ considerably from different components of the world –what works for London may not apply to Sydney or Stockholm.
As well as, they didn’t measure time spent in pure gentle publicity, despite the fact that gentle is essential for regulating our physique clocks and temper (Blume et al., 2019). With out understanding whether or not contributors frolicked outside or stayed inside all day, we will’t decide if these temper adjustments replicate real organic rhythms or simply behavioural habits. The examine design, because the authors acknowledged, can not set up causality – we don’t know if morning really makes us happier, or if happier persons are merely extra prone to full morning surveys.
Lastly, whereas despair, nervousness and loneliness have been measured utilizing validated questionnaires, happiness and life satisfaction have been assessed with single questions. Single gadgets lack the reliability and validity of established scales, probably explaining why optimistic feelings confirmed extra variability than destructive signs.
The COVID-19 context might have skewed outcomes, as day by day routines and lightweight publicity have been extremely disrupted.
Implications for apply
These findings might help us to reshape how we method psychological well being care. Clinicians must recognise that evaluation timing issues – a morning appointment may miss night despair peaks, whereas afternoon evaluations may underestimate morning nervousness. This means the necessity for time-stamped symptom monitoring, maybe utilizing ecological momentary evaluation (EMA) apps that seize temper fluctuations all through the day.
The morning wellbeing peak helps current suggestions for early-day vibrant gentle remedy in temper problems (Dollish et al., 2025). It additionally means that we must always schedule vital work throughout these pure excessive factors. These patterns have profound implications for service supply. Disaster helplines ought to anticipate elevated demand throughout these darkish night hours, significantly on weekends when temper swings are most excessive. Psychological well being providers may optimize sources by boosting night workers ranges and providing morning group periods when persons are most receptive to optimistic interventions. In workplaces, this analysis suggests aligning difficult tasks with morning readability and offering additional assist throughout the “midweek stoop”.
For researchers, these findings demand a rethink of examine design to account for measurement timing. Research should both standardise measurement occasions or statistically management for diurnal results to keep away from confounded outcomes. The substantial within-person variation in wellbeing measures highlights the constraints of single-timepoint assessments.
This examine opens additional analysis questions:
- Do folks with main depressive dysfunction present blunted morning enhancements?
- Might we determine early warning indicators by monitoring adjustments in somebody’s typical diurnal sample?
Future research ought to discover personalised “chronotherapies” – timing drugs, remedy periods, and interventions to every particular person’s distinctive circadian profile. Somebody with night nervousness may profit from afternoon rest methods, whereas one other battling morning despair may want daybreak gentle publicity.
Psychological well being providers ought to contemplate timing when scheduling assessments and interventions to optimize care supply.
Assertion of pursuits
No battle of pursuits to declare.
Hyperlinks
Main paper
Bu F, Bone JK, Fancourt D. (2025) Will issues really feel higher within the morning? A time-of-day evaluation of psychological well being and wellbeing from practically 1 million observations. BMJ Psychological Well being, 28:1–8. doi:10.1136/bmjment-2024-301418
Different references
Amendolara B, Miller L, Samudrala S, McCarthy MJ. (2025) Morning-evening variations within the post-illumination pupillary response are related to seasonal temper adjustments. Chronobiology Worldwide. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2025.2490496
Blume C, Garbazza C, Spitschan M. (2019) Results of sunshine on human circadian rhythms, sleep and temper. Somnologie (Berl), 23(3):147-156. doi: 10.1007/s11818-019-00215-x
De Lange M. (2024) The influence of daylight saving time on life satisfaction. The Psychological Elf, 28 October 2024.
Donnelly N. (2025) Are ‘evening owls’ extra prone to suicidal ideas and behaviours? New evaluate on social and circadian rhythm dysregulation. The Psychological Elf, 17 March 2025.
Walker WH 2nd, Walton JC, DeVries AC, Nelson RJ. (2020) Circadian rhythm disruption and psychological well being. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1):28. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-0694-0
Wirz-Justice A. (2008) Diurnal variation of depressive signs. Dialogues in Medical Neuroscience, 10(3):337-343. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2008.10.3/awjustice
