Why Everything Feels Worse After 10 P. M.

About this episode

The episode explores why thoughts can become overwhelming at night and offers practical tips for restful sleep.

Do your thoughts ever get louder the moment the world gets quiet? Your phone finally stops buzzing and you’re off your emails, but your mind starts to replay everything you tried to ignore. You think about that awkward text. You worry about your future. You begin to catastrophize every small thing. Well, if this is happening to you, you’re not alone. It happens to all of us, and powerful neuroscience is at work behind this phenomenon. In this piece, we’ll explore the science behind night thinking, and you’ll learn a practical tip you can use to make your nights restful and restorative. For a deeper dive, you can listen to the latest episode of Mental Health Bites here or on Apple Podcasts . You can also find more short clips and helpful tips at my YouTube channel . What Your Brain Does After Dark Your internal clock that governs sleep, mood, and hormones (i.e., your circadian rhythm) is tightly linked to emotional regulation. Around 10 p.m., most people experience a natural dip in cortisol. While cortisol gets a bad reputation, we need some of it to keep perspective. This stress hormone helps regulate alertness and mood stability, so when it drops too low, your emotional brakes…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Judy Ho

Topics covered

• night thinking
• emotional regulation
• circadian rhythm
• neuroscience
• mental health

Keywords

• cortisol
• default mode network
• self-reflection
• emotional brakes
• restorative sleep

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