ArticleBMJ mental health2025
Will things feel better in the morning? A time-of-day analysis of mental health and wellbeing from nearly 1 million observations.
Article in BMJ mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Temporal Patterns of Engagement and Sentiment in a Suicide Prevention Mobile App: Three-Year Observational Study.JMIR mental health · 2026Observational
- A real-time exploration of the affect regulation hypothesis surrounding substance use.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026Article
- Seasonal differences in depressive affect, worry-related sleep disturbance, and low energy among UK young people.PloS one · 2026Article
- The American dream: Election night dreams predict overnight change in feelings about the election and the future.PloS one · 2026Article
- Development of the FIDES Athlete Development Program 'girls are not small boys': a digital educational intervention.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Physical activity, health, and life satisfaction: Four panel studies demonstrate reciprocal effects.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMood is known to change over seasons of the year, days of the week, and even over the course of the day (diurnally). But although broader mental health and well-being also vary over months and weeks, it is unclear whether there are diurnal changes in how people experience and report their mental health.
objectiveTo assess time-of-day association with depression, anxiety, well-being and loneliness.
methodsThe study analysed data from 49 218 adults drawn from the University College London COVID-19 Social Study, which gathered detailed repeated measurements from the same participants across time over a 2-year period (March 2020-March 2022, 18.5 observation per person). Data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models.
findingsThere is a clear time-of-day pattern in self-reported mental health and well-being, with people generally waking up feeling best and feeling worst around midnight. There is also an association with day of the week and season, with particularly strong evidence for better mental health and well-being in the summer. Time-of-day patterns are moderated by day, with more variation in mental health and individual well-being during weekends compared with weekdays. Loneliness is relatively more stable.
conclusionsGenerally, things do seem better in the morning. Hedonic and eudemonic well-being have the most variation, and social well-being is most stable. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our findings indicate the importance of considering time, day and season in research design, analyses, intervention delivery, and the planning and provision of public health services.
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