Staying happy is important.
And nowadays, a lot of people struggle to make that happen.
According to one statistic from 2020, only 14% of American adults rated themselves as ‘very happy,’ which was a pretty drastic drop down from 31% in 2018.
One look at the typical modern American’s life will generally reveal tight schedules with a lot of responsibilities, fewer sleeping hours, and a healthy dose of additional stressors thrown on top for good (or actually bad) measure.
A lot of people have so much going on that even taking time to figure out why they’re not happier is actually kind of a big deal.
With that being said, there’s some science on this topic that may help you to figure out at least one additional method for increasing the odds that you’ll be able to maintain a positive mood.
Setting Consistent Sleeping And Waking Times
A lot of people don’t realize this, but choosing consistent times to wake up and go to bed actually plays a big role in how happy you are and how stable your mood is.
Here’s why.
When you’re constantly switching between different sleeping and waking times, your circadian rhythm gets thrown off.
Your circadian rhythm is important for maintaining a high quality of sleep.
And your quality of sleep plays a huge role in deciding how good your moods are and how happy you feel on a day to day basis.
But even beyond this, there’s another mechanism at work that’s crucial to understand.
Your circadian rhythm itself is also responsible for helping you to regulate your mood.
In fact, it regulates multiple brain regions that control not only mood, but also anxiety and motivated behaviors.
And if it gets thrown off balance, you can be sure that your mood, happiness, and overall feelings of positively will get thrown off as well in the process.
How Do You Fix The Problem?
Thankfully, this problem has a relatively simple solution:
Set a dedicated time to wake up and go to bed every day, and then stick to that schedule religiously.
This actually requires a bit of discipline and self control, but it’s truly worth the effort.
The more consistent you become with your waking and sleeping times, the more on-track your circadian rhythm will get—and the better your body and brain will be able to help you regulate your moods and overall sense of well being.
Yes, this may mean that you’ll need to cut out those late night movie binges or video game marathons.
But as happy as those might make you, the odds are actually better that they’re hurting your chance of living with a positive mood every day, by keeping you from getting the sleep you need and disrupting your circadian rhythm in the process.
It’s not rocket science.
It’s more like sleep science—and it matters.
Give it a try for a few weeks and see if your mood improves.
It could be the simple fix that you’ve been looking for.
