Those evening blues

Watching the sunset is usually a calming view. One, that ignites in many a sense of peace and warmth. However, some suffer from evening blues or sunset anxiety! For some, it gets worse as darkness seeps in and waves of despair and discomfort knock on their doors. While this has no official diagnosis yet, its occurrence is so common that it is today considered to be a phenomenon.

Sunset anxiety is a chilling feeling that kicks in, usually a culmination of anxiety, fear, restlessness, discomfort and the list goes on. However, apart from a general sense of feeling tired, worried or nervous, there are a lot of factors that contribute towards these peak feelings of anxiety especially around sunset.

Sunshine Guilt

There is a plethora of reasons to experience such intense waves from feeling ashamed for non-completion of tasks, post-work stress or simple apprehension about the next day. Here, productivity guilt too, could serve as an impeding factor.

Priya Parulekar, a Clinical Psychologist from Mumbai explains sunset anxiety as “a clinical term referring to changes in mood or behavioural patterns around late afternoon, evening or night.”

Priya opines that these waves of anxiety or mood swings experienced are usually due to one’s circadian cycle or rhythm. Humans are pre-tuned from the time of evolution to sleep at night and work during the day. Here, work mainly revolved around basic survival and food.

With the intellect primarily kicking in while staying safe from hostile tribes or wild animals or sourcing and finding food for themselves. She adds, “Today too, while the sun is out, humans work around earning money, so they are on the intellectual level busy with their emotions and mind being under the control of the intellect.”

However, this same scenario turns upside down as the sun begins to set. Deepali Batra, Sr. Consultant, Clinical Psychologist & Director, PALS from Delhi says, “Sunset anxiety could also be called ‘end of the day anxiety’ that kicks in during the end of the day, which is experienced by people.”

Unvisited Causes

Some apprehensions drive people towards experiencing similar feelings of inadequacy and stress. One such factor that serves as a trigger for some is the inherent need to do things perfectly aka those who identify as perfectionists.

These high standards set for oneself many times wouldn’t even be realistic. However, along with the sun setting there is a lot of churning of emotions that takes place. Psychologist Priya draws a line of comparison between dusk and its connection with one’s emo-tional state.

She says, “Today our mind is tuned to express itself in explicit ways around this time of the day.” Implying here that initially, one would have meals before the sunset. Winding up with chores and work and having plenty of time for one’s emotions, some entertain-ment along with other fulfilling activities. Terming this more as an “emotional-time.”

However, she cautions, “The emotions that kick in here could also be negative such as anxiety or depression, which best explains the sunset anxiety phenomenon.” There certainly then seems to be a stream of emotions running wild as thesun sets.

However, many of these reasons could be due to ‘real-life’ triggers and not primarily due to internal chaos or conflict.

Deepali adds, “It would be different for different individuals due to a variety of reasons such as unfinished work, an uncomfortable home environment, fear of darkness, apprehensions of fulfilling social expectations and so much more.”

Deepali opines that people across all age groups would experience this at some point in life. However, those living alone may be most susceptible to sunset anxiety. She also mentions that those with other mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders, trauma, PTSD, and chronic stress, may have a higher probability of experiencing sunset anxiety. “Dysfunctional families are a sad reality but have members who may dread evenings and worry more during this evening period,” adds Deepali.

Coping Mechanisms

Despite these uninvited waves of anxiety and stress, coping mechanisms could help relieve if not eliminate such feelings. Priya says, “It’s advisable to surround yourself with people you like or engage in some activity- be it solo or group to keep your mind engaged.”

Those who stay alone may also consider engaging with a friend over a brief call to cut the spree of negative thoughts. Other methods could involve engaging in breathing or relaxation exercises, positive self-talk or even the practice of diary writing which may seem obsolete may help immensely.

The emotions that kick in here could also be negative such as anxiety or depression, which best explains the sunset anxiety phenomenon.” — Priya Parulekar, Clinical Psychologist, Mumbai