You’re totally fine all day—productive, maybe even social, or (gasp) optimistic. But once the lights go out, everything changes! A sniffle becomes something that feels a whole lot like the flu. A small worry mutates into a life crisis. And if you’re sad? Cue the existential despair. 

So… why does everything feel worse at night? And … is there anything we can do about this? 

First let’s look at what is actually happening in our bodies and our minds as evening turns into night. Knowledge is power and understanding nighttime’s physical and mental dynamics can go a long way towards helping us manage the miseries that descend in the dark.  

It’s Not Just in Your Head  

Physically, our bodies are working overtime at night: 

Circadian Rhythms and Immune System: 

The body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm) influences various functions, including immune system activity. We know that a strong and active immune system causes powerful symptoms when we’re sick. Those symptoms are a sign that we are fighting whatever viral or bacterial infection may have invaded our bodies.  

At night, as we become less active, our immune system becomes more active and actually puts up a more intense fight against infections and inflammation. As our immune system ramps up, so do our symptoms like fever, pain, swelling, and congestion. We’re getting better but feeling worse. 

Cortisol Levels: 

Cortisol often gets a bad rap as a “stress hormone,” because it is released when we are under pressure to keep stress in check. Cortisol is also critical at keeping inflammation in check and modulating our immune system so that it doesn’t go nuts fighting foreign invaders. Our cortisol levels are typically highest in the morning and decline throughout the day. At night, when cortisol levels are lowest, we are hit with a double whammy. Our ability to manage inflammation decreases and there is less cortisol to control our ramped up immune system. This makes our symptoms feel worse.  

Fatigue: 

Fatigue can lower pain thresholds and increase sensitivity to pain, making aches, pains, and nerve symptoms more pronounced at night.  

Psychologically, Night Is a Perfect Storm 

All day long, you’ve got distractions. Work. Family. Socializing. TikTok rabbit holes. But at night? It’s just you, your thoughts, and the glow of your phone screen. 

Your brain loves an empty stage—it will fill the silence with everything from “what if I fail at life” to “did I insult that barista in 2019?” 

Fatigue (again): 

Tired brains are terrible at emotional regulation. The more fatigued you are, the more your mind leans toward drama. 

Rumination and Lack of Distractions:  

Nighttime often provides a quiet space for rumination, or dwelling on worries and anxieties, which can amplify feelings of fear and stress. Similar to feeling sicker, the lack of distractions at night can make it easier to focus on negative thoughts and feelings.  

Evolutionary Factors:  

Humans have a natural predisposition to be more cautious and alert at night, as our ancestors faced dangers in the dark.  

The Schachter Twist: Same Symptoms, Different Emotions 

One of the best explanations for why everything seems worse at night comes from a groundbreaking theory (and probative study) on emotions that has held up for more than sixty years. It may change the way you handle your emotions. 

In 1962 two psychologists, Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer set out to test their theory that all emotions stem from the same heightened physical sensations in our bodies and that we only “decide” what emotion we are experiencing based on the situation we are in. Their two-factor theory of emotion boiled down to this equation: 

Emotion = physical arousal + mental interpretation 

In other words: We feel something in our body, and then our brain decides what that feeling means based on the situation. Their now-famous experiment tested this directly. 

Schachter and Singer used 184 college students as subjects. 

Step 1: Injection (the physiological component)
All participants were told they were getting a vitamin shot to test vision. In reality, they were injected with either: 

• Epinephrine (which causes real physical symptoms: increased heart rate, change in breathing, muscle tightening, etc.) 

• A placebo (no physical effects) 
  
  

Step 2: Information Control (manipulating interpretation)
Participants were divided into groups based on how much they were told about the effects of the shot: 

• Informed: told exactly what to expect (“Your heart might race,” etc.) 

• Ignorant: told nothing 

• Misinformed: told false side effects (like headache or numb feet) 
  
  

Step 3: Emotional Context (the cognitive part)
Participants were placed in a room with a confederate (an actor working for the experimenters) who acted either: 

• Happy: playing with hula hoops, making jokes 

• Angry: reading a rude questionnaire and getting mad 
  
  

Key Question: Would participants’ emotions mirror the confederate, depending on their arousal and their understanding of it? 

Findings: 

• Participants who experienced arousal (got epinephrine) but didn’t know why (ignorant or misinformed) were most likely to mirror the emotion of the confederate. 

• With the joyful actor, they felt happy. 

• With the angry actor, they felt irritated or angry. 

• Participants who were told the true cause of their arousal (informed) were a bit less influenced by the confederate—they attributed their feelings to the shot. 

• Placebo participants (no arousal) didn’t report strong emotions either way. They were in the same situations as the injected groups, but without the physical symptoms, they didn’t feel emotional. 
  
  

The two-factor theory of emotion has been tested and proven many times over during the past sixty-three years, in different situations eliciting different emotions. For example, in a 1974 study researchers approached men as they walked over two different types of bridges: 

1. A high, shaky suspension bridge (scary, heart-pounding) 

1. A low, stable bridge (no big deal) 
   
   

Each man was stopped mid-bridge by an attractive female experimenter who asked them to fill out a questionnaire. Afterward, she gave them her number and said they could call if they had questions about the study. 

Key Finding: 

• Men on the scary bridge were significantly more likely to call the woman later. 

• Their survey responses also included more sexual content in a storytelling task. 

Their heightened physiological arousal (caused by the stress of navigating the bridge) was misattributed to romantic or sexual attraction. Just like in Schachter and Singer’s study, ambiguous arousal was shaped by context—in this case, a pretty face instead of a scientific confederate. 

 

What Does this Have to Do With Nighttime Miseries? 

It certainly helps explain the psychological component. If your body feels off and there’s no obvious reason, your brain fills in the blanks—sometimes by latching onto whatever’s happening around you. 

So, if your heart is racing or your stomach’s tight, your brain looks around in the quiet darkness and decides, “Oh, this must be panic. Or sadness. Or doom.” 

During the day, that same body feeling might be labeled “busy” or “focused.” At night, it gets labeled “freaking out.” Same body—different story. 

Understanding the two-factor theory of emotions can really help you reframe your feelings. You might consider other explanations for your heightened state and decide that you are excited about something scheduled for tomorrow or happy you made a new friend. Understanding that your symptoms can mean something other than impending doom is life-changing.  

What Can Actually Help 

1. Don’t try to solve your life at 3 a.m. Write it down. Deal with it in the morning, when you’re less dramatic and more hydrated. But do write it down. It’s just the sort of simple action that can help take the edge off. One common middle of the night stress message is “I have so much to do, I’ll never get it all done!” If you take a minute to write (or review) your to-do list, you will feel like you’ve been proactive (calming) and that the list is finite and flexible (calming). 

1. Gentle distractions help. White noise, audiobooks, podcasts—whatever keeps you from stewing in silence. Many of us think that this is a good reason to fall asleep with the TV on or to scroll through social media looking at happy cat videos. Neither is a good idea. The flickering blue light from the TV and the sound, even if low, will affect the quality of your sleep all night long. And as for social media… well you know you’ll run into many other agitating things besides happy cat videos. Also, the blue light will keep you awake longer and will also affect your sleep quality. 

1. Reframe the feeling. Remind yourself, “I’m anxious because I’m tired, not because the world is ending.” It works more than you’d think. 
   
   

Good News: It Really Does Look Different in the Morning 

Every morning your body resets, your hormones rebalance, and your brain becomes way less dramatic. So if nighttime feels heavy—don’t panic. You’re not broken. You’re just… human. If you’ve lost sleep the night before, start the day planning for an earlier bedtime. You’ll feel better and you’ll beat the midnight madness!