Hate mornings? You could have DAYBREAK DEPRESSION

It’s a little-known condition caused by hormones — and it makes life for some a waking nightmare

THERE is no chattering or laughter in the car when Josie Rowlands takes her children to school. Jake, seven, and Minnie, six, sit quietly in the back seat, not daring to say a word.

They have long since learned that the morning school run is not a good time to ask questions, play fight or even speak to their snappy, short-tempered mother.

But Josie, 38, isn’t always grumpy. She suffers from ‘daybreak depression’ — a littleknown condition caused by stress that turns mornings into a monstrous affair.

‘I hear my alarm at 6am and immediately feel hungover and exhausted, even though I went to bed at a decent time and didn’t drink,’ says Josie, a photographer from North Wales.

‘I lie there in bed and all these negative thoughts come crashing in. I have so much to do and it all feels so overwhelming. I worry about the day ahead, what I’m going to do at the weekend, about the children, my social life, everything. I feel so low that I don’t want to get out of bed.

‘I’m divorced and often have to spend weekends on my own when the children are with their dad, and the anticipation of all that time alone dominates my thoughts. I feel so low I don’t want to get up.’ Eventually, Josie drags herself out of bed. ‘Even at the school gates, the mothers know not to talk to me because I may bark back. It’s a totally different story at pick-up time, when I’m smiley and friendly.’

Josie has suffered from daybreak depression since her 20s, and believes it played a big part in the breakdown of her marriage three years ago.

‘My former husband just couldn’t handle how awful I was first thing,’ says Josie.

And yet, unlike any other form of depression, these feelings last only a few hours at most. By 10am, the anxiety lifts and Josie feels completely normal.

You might wonder whether Josie is simply ‘not a morning person’, but consultant endocrinologist Dr Abbi Luslegged has a different theory.

‘This morning depression — when you feel ghastly at the beginning of the day and then better as time goes on — is known as diurnal variation of mood,’ he explains.

‘Our bodies have a natural internal rhythm that regulates everything from heart rate to body temperature and impacts on our energy and mood.

‘At 7am, cortisol — the hormone produced by the adrenal gland, which is responsible for mobilising our sugar stores and giving us energy to cope with stress as well as getting us active in the mornings — is at its peak.

‘It then declines during the day, being undetectable at midnight (when you should be asleep) and then starts up again at about 2am to get us ready for waking.’

But while cortisol levels are higher in the morning for everyone, some people may wake with even higher levels due to a number of factors.

‘If you are stressed or anxious, have had less than seven hours’ sleep, or have low or poor quality sleep, this can lead to a further release of cortisol which will make your levels spike.

‘Excess cortisol leads to mood changes and feelings of depression and could explain why some people wake up feeling anxious.’

AND it would also explain why, as your cortisol levels fall during the course of the day, these depressive feelings gradually decline.

‘You can test your cortisol levels by explaining your situation to your GP and asking for a specific cortisol blood test,’ says Dr Martin Scurr, the Daily Mail GP who is based at King-Lewis Family Practice in Central London.

‘But it may be your morning depression is just one symptom of a general depression, in which case antidepressants may help.’

For Alexandra Abrahams, prescription medication finally helped to lift her morning blues. Until two months ago, she worked as a hotel and marketing PR manager, a job she found increasingly stressful.

‘For four years I’d wake up feeling depressed, not wanting to get up and face the day,’ says Alexandra, 37, from Bromley, Kent.

‘I’d lie there, worrying about my job and my future. I worried I wasn’t doing a good enough job, despite working 70 hours a week and the successes rolling in.

‘When I eventually got out of bed, I’d feel drowsy and sluggish.’ She’d arrive at work feeling low, and have to ‘put a face on’ to meet clients. It was only at mid-morning — about 11am, she says — that her smile no longer felt forced.

‘It was almost like a switch being flicked,’ she says. ‘It was such a relief to feel normal again.’

Eventually, Alexandra realised she couldn’t go on faking happiness every morning. She handed in her notice and went to the GP.

‘I was prescribed antidepressants, which I took for a couple of months — I didn’t want to become dependent on them — and they seemed to take the edge off my mornings,’ says Alexandra, who now works as a freelance marketing consultant and is able to go for early-morning swims and runs, which improve her mood.

Dr Luslegged says exercise releases endorphins — known as happy hormones — which make you feel calmer and, in turn, cause your cortisol levels to drop. ‘We don’t know if it helps to directly reduce cortisol or to reduce the stress which inadvertently lowers cortisol levels, but it definitely works,’ he says.

Alexandra agrees: ‘I still get low moments when I wake up, but I make a conscious effort to think positively, and do some exercise, and it’s working.’

Andrea Gould, 40, from Colchester, Essex, has also tried exercising in the mornings in an effort to combat her daybreak depression.

‘The last thing I want to do in the mornings is get up and do anything,’ says Andrea, who works for an online furniture restoration company that gives her flexible hours and late starts.

‘I wake up in a fog and I can’t order my thoughts. I force myself into the shower and to have breakfast, but even walking down the stairs is an effort.

‘In my 20s, I was fine and would jump out of bed in the mornings, but ever since I turned 30, I have felt so sluggish and depressed.’

DR LUSLEGGED believes that this sudden shift of mood from your 20s to 30s may be down to changing levels of sex hormones — oestrogen and progesterone — rather than fluctuating cortisol levels.

Like Alexandra and Josie, Andrea’s depression lifts within a few hours of waking. Even so, its impact on her life is so great that she is reluctant to have children. She says: ‘I’d be a terrible mother. How would I get them to school in the mornings?’

She also believes it may prevent her finding a partner. Her last relationship ended in 2012, after two years, and she hasn’t dated anyone seriously since.

‘Who’s going to want to wake up with me?’ she says.

She now tries to go for a swim in the mornings — and does feel better when she manages it — and is also trying to modify her diet, realising the high-sugar snacks she eats in the mornings to give her energy don’t help.

Naturopath and nutritionist Nikki Hill suggests the best way to combat daybreak depression is to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet to keep your blood sugar levels steady. She also recommends taking two tablets of vitamin B Complex daily for energy and to reduce tiredness.

‘Those who suffer from high cortisol in the morning are often low on Vitamin B5, which helps to reduce cortisol,’ says Nikki.

She adds: ‘A big question to ask is: “Does this morning depression occur on holiday?” If the answer’s no, you need to make adjustments to the way you live your life.’