Is it normal to feel more depressed at night than during the day?

Yes. I believe depression is at its worst at nighttime.

A little puff of ganja before bedtime can help.

@Ben_Dover I’m very paranoid when I am high, so that is a bad idea, but thanks.

Are you too worn out by bedtime? A too low blood sugar can make you feel down and sad. A poor diet for an extended time can also bring you down. But crying yourself to sleep is so extreme to me. Perhaps your stress levels are just way to high and you are overwhelmed. It’s good that you’re smart enough to get an appointment.

When you cry at night, is there any specific thing you cry about? It could be situational. I know night time is the hardest for me in my current situation and there are nights that I cry myself to sleep because of it.

Yes, perhaps serotonin levels drop too. It happens to many people.

@faye I don’t feel stressed during the day, its only at night. And I haven’t strayed from my diet. I know I have been frustrated about not being able to find a job. But that whole thing is pointless right now.

@Seaofclouds it could be, I didn’t think about that, but I do really miss my mom.

@shego It could be that you keep yourself busy and distracted during the day and nighttime is the only time your mind relaxes and gets to think about those things (the stress and missing your mom). Have you ever tried any meditation before bed? I hope you get some good answers when you see the psychologist next week.

No I have never tried meditation before bed. I will look into trying that.

How about trying chamomile tea or something similar an hour before bed? Maybe melatonin- until you have your appointment. I’ve also read that carbohydrates will boost your mood and help you sleep.

I wonder if it’s anything like seasonal affective disorder. Because I have “reverse” SAD and, now that you mention it, I’m more depressed during the day than I am after dark… Interesting…

Yes. It’s natural and I don’t feel like googling the various names for it – from the psychological to the Shakespearian, like it being a little death – but you get the point.

I think it’s biological, instinctive and makes sense; darkness means you can’t see who’s creeping up on you. Moreover, we have been manufacturing light only recently, but our instincts haven’t caught up with it; thus, when there was no light, and danger all around, we relied on our other sense like sound and smell. Nowadays, those senses have dulled, but when we turn out the light, the night is just as dark.

@shego I was going to mention SAD, but @MacBean beat me to it. I don’t suffer from SAD, but my wife Anita always has a worse mood and more depressed, etc on cloudy rainy days than sun-filled days, so I think there must be something in the lack of light at night and in wintry weather.

For many of us who suffer from depression, it works the other way around. Early evening blocks out the world and creates a comfort zone. Are you able to sleep through the night? 3 AM is a common time to be awake for many who are depressed.

Home is a place to let down your guard. Keeping the game face on during the day is hard work, and when you’re home alone, you can release all the tensions and insecurities that you have from uncertainty. Is the happy/bubbly an act? Do you feel like you’re expected to be that way?

@zen_ I wouldn’t be so quick to say our senses of smell and hearing have diminished. Why should they have? I just read somewhere intelligence hasn’t been proven an evolutionary advantage so our senses are probably all the more important.

I kinda do the same thing, but I don’t really cry. I just sit there and think and think and think and think!! Things just flow better at night… I feel more artistic at night too. I guess that’s kind of weird. But when I’m down in the dumps it’s definitely worse at night and I just end up not sleeping. Then I’m pissed off the next day because I’m tired. Ugh. It’s a vicious cycle. I’ve been talking to a therapist, she tells me I’m normal. I forgot her reasoning as to why night is worse for me… but if it makes you better I have been validated. :)

Night is the best. The world is sleeping, nothing it can do to me.

You might want to read Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. Here’s an NYT synopsis of the book that’s pretty interesting.

Totally normal. I try to just go to sleep as quickly as I can so I don’t dwell on stuff too long or post a dramatic facebook status by accident.

I feel like it is. I think it’s that you’re worn down, tired, maybe your mental defenses are weak…
you’re not as distracted by daily events.
And maybe it is a SAD-sort of thing. Hmmm. And, if you’re still a teenager, this definitely amplifies it. I’m glad you’ve made an appointement.

As many have mentioned, SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is a condition that happens to many folks during the winter. We need a certain amount of sunlight to maintain our mental health, and when we are inside all the time in winter, we don’t get enough light.

To say that you have some kind of 24 hour cycle SAD makes a kind of sense—I thought of it, too—but I don’t think it really could be a good explanation. SAD occurs over too long a time. If this is something related to vitamins or whatever, it has to be fast acting and related to light. I don’t think that’s it.

I think the theory about it being the quiet and lack of activity that allows your mind to do its thing, and its thing is not a good thing for you—is a better theory. You think about things and mull over things and you start to make yourself feel worse because you judge how you behaved and then you convince yourself that it can only get worse. All signs of depression.

@Seaofclouds suggested meditation, and I think that is the right direction. What will help, I think, is if you can find a way to ignore that train of thinking. Mindfulness techniques are designed to do that. Meditation is one of those techniques. The idea is that you separate yourself from those thoughts until it’s almost as if someone else is thinking them, and the real you can be amused at those thoughts. Then you can let them go (without letting them affect your mood) and focus on useful thoughts.

The psychologist may work in any number of ways. He or she may be a cognitive behavioral therapist or one who encourages the use of mindfulness techniques, or one who believes that understanding the effect of your childhood on you can help you change, or many other styles.

You should be aware that, unless insurance says otherwise, you can look around to find a therapist you can work with effectively. You can also choose a therapist who specializes in a method you think will work for you.

Good luck.

Oh…Well I see the issue, don’t worry it happens to me too…I get depressed at night, but hell I’m even depressed during the day. But uh I think you’re depressed maybe thinking about your past, maybe the night makes you depressed because you miss someone, I don’t really know, but those are some of the things that I think may be wrong. Don’t worry I support you in your depression since it happens to me too. (though I am going through “puberty” so I can’t say that it’s not normal, you know how teens are these days right everyone?)

I know there is a spectrum of depression and if you are experiencing a little, you should seek help. I was told to make sure that I had enough Vitamin D – 2000 IU per day (which is what helps contribute to Seasonal Affective Disorder), as well as the Omega 3/6/9s. Once I started taking those vitamins, it definitely helped with my “down” moods. Also, everyone should suggest exercise…try and take a walk or run in the evening and get those endorphins flowing!

In addition to all of the suggestions about meditation before bed, you also might want to try writing out your fears, thoughts, hopes, etc. Just to try and get it out of your brain – even if you shred your notes later, you should get it out.

I get that all the time. Right now, in fact. There’s more to distract me during the day. Errands, TV, hobbies, etc. At night, it’s just me doing nothing trying to get to sleep. I tried my comfort foods, drinking water, deep breathing, watching movies or TV, cleaning. It drove me nuts that I couldn’t get anything to work. Going to sleep at 5 or 6 am sucks. I would try taking vitamins first and then, if that doesn’t work, maybe ask for some medication that can help you get to sleep. That’s what I do. It’s easily possible to get your mood back up yourself, but without a decent night’s sleep, it’s hard as hell.

Yes, it’s very normal, and quite common. I live in northern Canada, where the winters are long and dark. From November to March, the sun rises on average at 9 pm. and sets at 4:30 pm. We have very short days in winter.

When I was growing up, I used to feel “blue” when night fell. I know what you mean shego. It’s like two different worlds, night and day. It started to get worse in the fall, when school started, and the combination of school, stress, and early nightfall was onerous indeed.

As I grew older, I realize that it was part of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I read an article about it, and someone recommended turning on as much lights in the house as night fell. “Light therapy” helps a lot of people, by changing the levels of hormones in the brain responsible for depression.

But I sometimes feel this way in summer too. I think it’s an evolutionary/biological thing too——we’re supposed to be sleeping as night falls, not awake and “thinking” about things and doing things.

I remember when I was in high school, and I felt this way at night, and wondered if I was the only person who felt like this. I was a big ABBA fan then, and one day I bought one of their albums and to my surprise, found a song by them that spoke to me about how I felt. It was like “Gee, it’s not an uncommon problem after all. Millions of people must suffer from this.” Anyhow, here’s the song that sort of “helped” me (lol)—-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS4-It4dG80&feature=related

@MRSHINYSHOES ”I was a big ABBA fan then…” THAT’S IT! SOMETHING WE AGREE ON! hahahaha

@MacBean Seriously? Wow. I finally found kinship with someone who loves “Nina Pretty Ballerina”! Lol.

I’m a “closet ABBA fan”. Shhhhhh…..don’t tell! ;)

Night is incredibly lonely for some more than others. It’s sort of the same for me. Day is more distracting. Night hits hard.