Why you are moody one day and not the next

Sometimes you do everything you want to do in one day with full energy and a dose of self-confidence, the next day you feel like a dishcloth and cry at the Albert Heijn commercial.

Recognizable to many: why are you so unstable and vulnerable and quick to get offended one day and not at all the next? Being emotional has everything to do with your sleep. If you haven't slept well for just one night, you may react more quickly from your emotions to others. Snapping at someone or suddenly bursting into tears for no reason : it comes with the territory. You can't help it. It has to do with your brain, and specifically with the amygdala.

This part of your brain is involved in driving behavior and processing emotions like fear and aggression. If you get too little sleep, this part of your brain works a bit harder and becomes more active. And that may sound like a good thing, but it isn't. Because an active amygdala leads to quicker exaggerated reactions to ordinary things. Research from Harvard shows that just one night of poor sleep does this: the amygdala of participants who had to stay awake at night reacted with many more firing neurons than those of participants who were allowed to sleep well.

There is more to say about this lesson in neurobiology. The research also showed that the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex communicated less in people who are unstable. That cortex is linked to your ability to think rationally. So if you need to make an important decision? Then it's better not to do that when you are not emotionally strong . Unstable behavior also stems from misprocessing emotions of others and yourself. You react very sharply to something, even though it doesn't need to be that way. It's important to seek positive attention from others, engage in activities that energize you, and go outside and move. Also, be aware of your feelings: your thoughts and emotions are not who you are. That is purely how you feel, but it is not the truth. Often, worrying is about things from the past over which you have no influence anymore or they are about things that may happen in the future. But you don't know if they will actually happen, so remember that: it makes no sense to worry about it. And make sure to get good sleep, that already makes half the difference in your emotional state.

Well. Since I have three children, I think I've had very few nights of a full eight hours. That's already 489 nights of poor sleep in a row. So just leave me alone with that advertisement from Albert Heijn. I'll be back in about 15 years, okay?.