Psychology says people who feel a wave of sadness at dusk even on good days are experiencing these 5 patterns - and it connects to something so ancient in the human brain that psychologists say the feeling predates language itself - Silicon Canals

"The evening intensification of grief is not a psychological phenomenon that happens to have neurochemical correlates. It is a neurochemical phenomenon that produces a psychological experience. This completely reframed how I think about those dusk feelings. It's not that I'm choosing to feel melancholy or that something's wrong with my mindset. My brain is literally going through chemical changes as the light shifts."

Twilight melancholy—the inexplicable heaviness felt during dusk—is not merely poetic imagination but a genuine phenomenon grounded in evolutionary biology and neuroscience. As light diminishes, the brain undergoes significant neurochemical changes independent of daily circumstances. Serotonin, dopamine, and cortisol levels shift during evening hours, creating a cascade of chemical changes that produce psychological experiences of sadness or melancholy. This response predates human language and reflects how ancient brain mechanisms still respond to light-dark rhythms. The phenomenon occurs regardless of how positive one's day has been, indicating it operates at a fundamental neurobiological level rather than being influenced by external events or emotional state.

Read at Silicon Canals