When the clock strikes midnight

Apologies in advance to our dear night owl friends, because you’re not going to like this one. The human mind becomes more susceptible to negative thoughts and destructive behavior past 12 AM, according to a new meta-analysis of peer-reviewed research, resulting in higher levels of suicide and self-harm, violent crime, substance use, and food intake.

🧠🕛 Background… Humans are inclined to feel and act in certain ways based on our circadian rhythms – the 24-hour cycle of physical, mental, and behavioral changes experienced by most living things on Earth, based on how light or dark their surroundings are.

• This biological clock is controlled by the brain and encoded into nearly every tissue and organ, regulating hormone release, eating habits, digestion, sleep, and body temperature. So just like Ron Burgundy, you could say it’s kind of a big deal.

👩‍🔬 Zoom in: With this👆 in mind, scientists at the University of Arizona, UPenn, and Harvard set out to study how being awake during the witching hours affects the human brain, even when it’s had enough sleep. And after reviewing dozens of peer-reviewed articles and studies on the topic, they proposed the “Mind After Midnight” hypothesis.

According to the researchers, once midnight strikes, negative emotions tend to draw our attention more than positive ones, dangerous ideas grow in appeal, and inhibitions fall away. So kind of like a night out drinking, but if your body just got itself drunk naturally after 12 AM.

• The reason for this is rooted in our evolution, since early humans were much more effective at hunting and gathering in the daylight and faced more risk from predators at night.

+In the know: More research is needed to determine how being awake after midnight affects the decision-making of late-shift workers like nurses, pilots, and doctors.