When is the happiest time of day?
LONDON – A comprehensive study conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom suggests that mental health and overall well-being are better in the morning than late in the evening.
The study, published in BMJ Mental Health, examined nearly a million survey responses from over 49,000 participants, offering insights into how the time of day, season and day of the week can impact mental health.
The findings revealed that people generally reported feeling their best in the morning, with lower levels of anxiety, minimal loneliness and higher levels of happiness and satisfaction.
On the other end of the spectrum, participants reported feeling their worst around midnight, when the highest levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness were often experienced.
"Our findings suggest that on average, people’s mental health and well-being are better in the morning and worst at midnight. We drew on a large sample of repeated data – nearly a million survey responses from 49,000 participants over two years," Dr. Feifei Bu, lead author and member of UCL’s Department of Behavioral Science & Health, said in a statement.
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Researchers suggested that influences such as physiological processes, environmental factors and the ability to conduct daily activities all play a role in people’s well-being.
Environmental factors include sunlight, temperature, noise and air pollution – all of which are thought to play an underlying role in a person’s mental health.
"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, prioritizing late-night availability," Bu stated.
In the longer term, researchers said there was a clear correlation between more positive occurrences happening over the weekend and all seasons outside of winter.
"There are seasonal patterns in signals of anger, anxiety, sadness, and fatigue on social media, with anxiety peaking in spring and autumn and sadness peaking in winter.17 Alongside this, research has explored seasonal MHW [mental health and well-being] variation. It has repeatedly been proposed that mental health is worst in winter and best in summer, with the extreme case being seasonal affective disorder," the study stated.
Despite its findings, the study's authors emphasized that the research did not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, which could be explored in future investigations.
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The study did not address the bi-annual turning of clocks that happens in many countries around the world to maximize the amount of daylight during the summer months.
Discussions are underway in the U.s. and several other countries about sticking to a permanent time standard year-round to avoid the changing of clocks and any health impacts associated with the tradition.
In the United States, clocks will spring forward and enter daylight saving time on Sunday, March 9, at 2:00 a.m. local time, which is generally considered to be less beneficial for the body’s natural circadian rhythm.
Daylight saving time is set to last until Sunday, Nov. 3, 2025, when clocks will fall back one hour and return to standard time.
Original article source: When is the happiest time of day?
