How Morning Stress Affects Your Day

1 min

Focusing on stressful events or responsibilities first thing in the morning can affect your working memory later in the day, whether or not the anticipated stress actually occurs. (Working memory is what helps us learn and retain information even when we’re distracted.) Researchers at Penn State investigated the effects of morning stress on 240 racially and economically diverse adults. These individuals responded seven times a day for two weeks to questions prompted by a smartphone app. The first thing the app asked in the morning is whether they expected the day to be stressful. Six additional times throughout the day the app queried them about their current stress level and whether or not they expected the next day to be stressful. The participants also completed a working memory task five times a day. Results showed that anticipation of stress in the morning was linked to poorer working memory later in the day, although anticipating stress the previous evening wasn’t associated with poorer working memory. Martin Sliwinski, director of Penn State’s Center for Healthy Aging, explained that a reduced working memory can make you “more likely to make a mistake at work or maybe less able to focus.”

Source:
Jinshil Hyun et al, “Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed: The Effects of Stress Anticipation on Working Memory in Daily Life.” The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, May 15, 2018, doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby042

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