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How to retain my evening optimism? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Sometimes when I stay up late doing something creative I end up getting this very comforting feeling about the future. A sort of certainty that everything will work out in the end and that ~~luck~~ happy coincidences will always be on my side. If I had this sort of confidence throughout the day, I would live a much more pleasant and relaxed life. Since it makes me forget about all the hurdles I am grappling with in life, it makes excited about the future once again (like I was in my early teens before all the new responsibilities started weighing on me), and makes me want to go out there and live life to the fullest.

Does anyone else experience this feeling as well? It's always gone by the morning but if I could internalize it it could be life changing. Do you have any idea how?

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[–] phubarr 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In theory, it's fully under your control whether you experience this feeling or not. I have a degree in psychology and the best I can explain it is that the sleep deprivation alters your brain chemistry (kind of like antidepressants do) and it changes your perception of reality. The way I experience this effect so strongly, it almost changes me into a different person... an optimistic, happy, extroverted person. Maybe it's endorphins being released due to your body being overworked and going into an emergency mode. It sucks that I eventually have to go to sleep, where your cerebrospinal fluid washes your brain and "resets" it back to baseline. If I could only retain that sense of enlightenment and hopefulness I experience when stay up so absurdly long, I know I would be a better person. I really believe it's due to the altered brain chemistry, I just don't know exactly what it is. Maybe it's due to your sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the flight or fight (emergency) response that we have, which releases adrenaline, among other brain chemicals (neurotransmitters). Good luck in your pursuit of finding the answer, I'd love to know more about whatever this effect is.

[–] phubarr 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just to add a little bit more, the best I've come to manually reproducing this effect on my own is through long bouts of exercise. Maybe it's the same effect as the "runner's high". I used to be a firefighter and I'd experience a similar effect when I would spend all day outside doing PT (physical training). Come 5 o'clock, after 8 hours of exercise, everyone would be dying, and I'd be experiencing a euphoric boost of energy, and I'd help all the instructors clean up the training grounds. Whenever I'd stop, I would crash, hard. It's possible for me to feel this feeling through exercise, it's just impractical to devote 8 hours a day to exercise in order for me to feel it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for all of this info, I'll definitely comment if I find something!