Mood Gets Worse At Night

[Lady of Longbourn]

I have noticed that even if my days are good, that my mood, depression, morbid thoughts all get worse at night.

Normally I am a night owl and I try to sleep early if I can but I normally don't and it's normally around midnight or later when my mood shifts to anger and depression. By the time I wake up I normally fine again.

I was wondering if anyone has noticed this or experiences this?

I wonder if it has to do with my day. If my mind feels it didn't do enough during the day so then it's more restless at night. Sometimes I wonder if the mood change is a sort of punishment.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

I know exactly how you feel and I've been wondering the same thing. Maybe it's because at night you're tired, and therefore no longer have the energy to keep your feelings and anxiety under as much control as you do during the day. If that makes any sense.

 

[ellienad]

I can definitely relate to this. I think it has to do with the evenings being a time when we are winding down, and our minds are as well. During the day when we are busy doing "stuff", whether it's big or small, our minds are still busy. But at night when things begin to slow down, it makes room for our minds to fully process and feel... if that makes sense.

 

[TimeToHeal]

@Ayesha, I've struggled with this, on and off, for sometime. My thoughts on it are similar to what @ellienad said.

I think that during the day, when we are busy doing whatever it is we do, our brains stay sort of distracted, or occupied, but in the evening or at night, when things are quiet and we're alone (I'm imagining Husband is already in bed), our thoughts begin to wander. It seems for many of us, for whatever reason - whether it has simply become habit, or is PTSD, or depression, Bipolar, or something else altogether - our thoughts tend to wander to dark, morbid, miserable places.

I've noticed this also seems to happen to me if I have too much time on my hands and am stuck at home. I tend to stay "on the go," and am quite active. It gets exhausting sometimes, but it seems to help to keep the dark thoughts at bay.

Hope you're having a great day!! :hug:

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

Agree and I think the thoughts are worse during the night if I feel I didn't do enough during the day.

 

[TimeToHeal]

By whose definition of "enough?"

 

[franciemarnie]

By 3 a.m., forget about it. Just shoot me. All distraction gone. My grounding and mindful "muscles" burned out. Old familiar obsessive thoughts shout out for retrials. Ugh.

 

[Fadeaway]

Nights are awful for me. I can be fine all day but as soon as evening role around it gets bad. I think it is several reasons. Who can you all at night? There are less resources available at night if you really need help since 9-5 offices are closed. People tend to drink more at night, night time is a riskier time. Also if you had someone in your life that was a stressor for you in the past, evenings and nighttime might have been when you were exposed to that person the most due to work or school.

As you said, if I don't do enough during the day, my minds starts being filled with all the things i should have done. I start to feel guilty for not taking care of things I should have, or start remembering things I meant to do that I forgot I was planning on doing.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

@TimeToHeal Mine. I have been told many times that I am to hard on myself. Maybe that is what is happening here. But I don't think that will change.[DOUBLEPOST=1400300623,1400300468][/DOUBLEPOST]@Fadeaway Yes, I agree with you about the last part of your post. I don't drink...

But the last bit of your post is me. Mostly I just feel if I didn't use my mind enough then my day was a waste or I could have done this or this...

 

[Fadeaway]

I mean other people drink, not you. I brought up the part about the drinking because my ex was a heavy drinker so the later at night it was the more intoxicated and violent he was. Even though he isn't around I think I am still in the habit of being on edge due to that.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

@Fadeaway I understand. I was just clarifying.

 

[Caterpillar]

My problems always get worse at night too, even though I'm also generally a "night person" and have a lot if energy at night (way too much energy, really). For me I think it's a combination of the stresses of the day and the feeling that another day has slipped by without me fixing/changing/improving the things I want to change. The lack of distractions definitely doesn't help either. I try to keep doing things like reading or watching TV right up until I fall asleep, though that probably doesn't help my sleeping troubles a whole lot.