{"id":5672,"date":"2021-11-09T21:26:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T21:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/?p=5672"},"modified":"2021-12-06T15:55:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T15:55:13","slug":"the-explanation-for-afternoon-depression-or-mood-dips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/the-explanation-for-afternoon-depression-or-mood-dips\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Afternoon Depression or Mood Dips?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people experience afternoon depression or mood dips that get better as the evening goes on. This often goes hand in hand with the feeling of loneliness and being unmotivated to do things that one otherwise enjoy doing. Have you experienced the same thing? Here’s the explanation for afternoon depression and afternoon mood dips.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>Loneliness Living Alone? Tips on How to Deal With it<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific explanation for afternoon Depression\/Mood Dips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The biological explanation for afternoon mood dips can be found in the activity of the brain\u2019s reward center. The reward center has shown to be more active during mornings and later in the evenings, compared to afternoons. The reward center affects what \u201crewards\u201d we experience from things such as good food or a compliment. So it seems that a less active reward center means a dip in mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, this study<\/a> indicates that the time of day when the reward center was least active was 2 p.m. However, this time doesn\u2019t really fit into my own experience of the afternoon dip. I experience a dip between 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, perhaps for me, the activity of the reward center isn\u2019t the cause for my afternoon dips. Or, perhaps, my brain\u2019s body clock<\/a> is just \u201clater\u201d than most people\u2019s (which I\u2019ve suspected for years since my most productive hours are late at night). Does the 2 p.m. fit into your experience of afternoon mood dips? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we do to feel better?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first step is always to become aware of what problems we have, and why we have them. And then, it\u2019s time to explore what we can do to help ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are just some tricks and things that I\u2019ve tried for myself, and hopefully, they\u2019ll work for you too. Note, I\u2019m not a professional psychologist or anything and I haven\u2019t based these on any research (yet). But feel free to try them out for yourself if you’re feeling down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 things that can help with afternoon mood dips \/ depression<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself some time-off from work or being productive<\/li>
  2. Allow yourself to do enjoyable things
    1. Watch Netflix, eat chocolate, journal, take a warm shower<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
    2. Fill up your body with new energy 
      1. Coffein, food, water<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
      2. Play upbeat music and dance to lift your mood<\/li>
      3. Go for a walk or do other movements to release dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin  (the feel good hormones)<\/li>
      4. Reach out and talk to people whom you love<\/li>
      5. Expose yourself to positive outside influences
        1. Perhaps you know a specific YouTuber or Instagram profile that always lifts your moods?<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Thanks for reading, and I hope this could help you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Do you experience afternoon depression or mood dips that get better as the evening goes on? Here’s the explanation for afternoon depression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[218,258],"tags":[270,277,305,328],"class_list":["post-5672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-development","category-thoughts","tag-personal-development","tag-self-help","tag-tips","tag-well-being","entry","has-media"],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15.png",1953,1156,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15-300x178.png",300,178,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15-768x455.png",768,455,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15-1024x606.png",1024,606,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15-1536x909.png",1536,909,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15.png",1953,1156,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15.png",600,355,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15.png",760,450,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/HorizontalHorizontal15.png",1183,700,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Wendy Zhou","author_link":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/author\/wendy1111live-se\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Do you experience afternoon depression or mood dips that get better as the evening goes on? Here's the explanation for afternoon depression.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5672"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6147,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions\/6147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendyzhou.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}