This was trending on Twitter last night:
I feel really groggy and tired in the middle afternoon, but awake and energetic late at night. #idothistoo
I don’t do Twitter but, ugh, fine, #idothistoo. However, in my case, the effect is sometimes more dramatic. If I’m in a depressive episode, my mood follows the same cycle, worse in the afternoon and better later in the evening, often to the point that some symptoms entirely disappear at nighttime.
In medical terms, this is called diurnal mood variation and it’s considered a hallmark of clinical depression. The classical diurnal variation is progressive improvement throughout the day; waking up is said to be worst, especially when you wake up in the early hours of the morning (so-called “late insomnia”).
In my experience, this is true but only when my depression is severe: I wake up two or three hours early feeling terrible, and then ...
