This is why you're happiest in the morning, according to science
You don't need to be an early bird to enjoy the day's initial hours. Most people in general tend to feel better in the morning, a new study finds. It's the most comprehensive study of its kind, as relatively few studies have considered mental health and wellbeing's fluctuations over the course of a day.
The morning happiness study
In this most comprehensive study of its kind, published in BMJ Mental Health, researchers used the University College London Covid-19 Social Study that collected data from 49,218 adults between March 2020 and March 2022.
Participants were asked questions such as, '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?'
Factors such as age, health conditions and whether people worked were taken into account.
Results of the morning happiness study
Researchers found people were in a better frame of mind in the morning and woke up 'feeling best' on the whole, but by midnight their mood had declined and they were 'feeling worse'. The authors concluded that, 'Generally, things to seem better in the morning'.
The results showed that happiness (hedonic wellbeing), life satisfaction, and sense of being worthwhile (eudemonic wellbeing) ratings were all higher on Mondays and Fridays than on Sundays, while mood was also higher on Tuesdays. Mental health also saw a greater variation at weekends and, by contrast, was more even during the week.
When it came to seasons, people widely felt happier in the summertime than during the winter, and mental health was better during the warmer months across all outcomes. Participants had lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms and loneliness and higher levels of life satisfaction. However, these seasonal vicissitudes didn't affect the observations noted throughout the day.
Why are people happier in the morning?
While it's an observational study that can't establish cause, the authors suggested the changes could be associated with physiological changes linked to the body clock.
'For example, cortisol [a hormone that helps the body respond to stress and homeostasis, or maintaining an internal environment], peaks shortly after waking and reaches its lowest levels around bedtime,' they said.
However, the weekend-weekday discrepancy could be due to daily routines and their fluctuations throughout the course of the week.
Dr Feifei Bu, from UCL's department of behavioural science and health, also noted that timing could also affect results. '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.' She advised that findings need 'to be replicated in other studies that fully account for this potential bias'.
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