Every day we are faced with numerous challenges and circumstances that may hinder our plans and goals. We still do not give up and know we must conquer the struggles with pure determination. Maneuvering through the tribulations of life can be extremely complicated, even during the best of conditions. Once moods and emotions become an influence, things can easily spiral out of control quickly.

Moods and emotions are commonly viewed to be one and the same, but this couldn’t be more false. It is important to understand the difference between a person’s mood and emotions. Emotions can range anywhere within happy, elated, sad, etc. Emotions are momentary feelings that stem from an unknown cause and have no known starting point. Moods are feelings that are long-lasting and are much deeper. Moods are either positive or negative with nothing in between.

I am sure there are several other factors that can create changes in a person’s moods, but I am only going to describe seven commonly known causes for mood swings.

1. Restless or interrupted sleep:

Sleep is an important part of our well-being. During our deepest phases of sleep, our brain generates and restores mood and emotion balancing chemicals. When the sleep cycle is interrupted or we are experiencing restless sleep, our brains do not have adequate time to restore the chemicals needed.

It is possible for someone to deal well with a lack of sleep for the first part of the day, but midway through the day their mood incomprehensibly crashes. Moods begin to crash because the mind and brain simply ran out of necessary chemicals.

Maintaining good sleep is beneficial to manage mood swings, but also for the essence of our mental health and mood control. There are things that can be done to improve sleep quality. Avoiding caffeine and sugar later in the day, set a regular bedtime and stick with it, work around your Circadian Rhythm, and put all electronics away at least one hour before bedtime.

2. Stresses from life:

A person that spends a lot of time worrying about work, finances, family, and or the other responsibilities that come along with life can experience a great deal of stress. Those that worry a great deal of their time may end up completely worn out and just plain exhausted. Stress can cause issues with how we sleep, what and how much we eat and drink, and even how we feel about the world.

It is important to find ways to lessen, control, and cope with stress, which will also help sustain our state of moods. It might mean we need a change in our lifestyle, find a new job, and reduce the time spent on social media.

3. People that surround you:

The people we are around daily can impact our lives in a positive way by adding benefits and happiness, or they can take away from our life by not adding anything but negative and only taking away our happiness or a person may remain neutral by not adding or taking away from our lives.

It can serve as a positive or negative, but those we are around the most will have an impact on our life. It can be beneficial and healthy to every now and then review the friends we are closest to, make sure the person or person is not taking more than others or not providing anything positive.

4. Medications or treatments:

When someone with certain health issues does not follow the directions of their physician, mood swings can be a result. Problems with memory can cause someone to forget to take the medications, which can cause issues with their moods.

5. Insufficient amounts of exercise:

Exercise can help stabilize both our emotional and mental well-being because it produces an endorphin boost. An inactive lifestyle can negatively affect our physical and mental health by contributing to pessimistic moods and depression.

Consistent amounts of exercise can improve an individual’s moods and even help maintain a balanced and stable state of mind. The exercise does not need to be anything more than a short 30-minute walk at least 3 times a week, but the positive impact on our mental and physical state will be noticeable.

6. An undesirable diet of food and drink:

Food and drink are what fuels our bodies and keeps us moving throughout the day. Both the quality and types of food and drink we consume furnishes our physical and mental health.

Lower quality and beverages such as highly processed and fast food, alcohol, soda, and caffeinated beverages tend to make a person feel worse and can lead to mood swings.

7. Weather and seasonal changes:

Everyone handles the seasonal changes and weather differently. It is common for sunshine to assist our bodies to generate additional Vitamin D and serotonin, which can cause our moods to be brighter. Cloudy skies and changes with the seasons reduce the amount of natural light and can contribute negatively to the stability of our moods.

Where some people are happier with sunny weather and less happy during the winter months, some are the direct opposite. Neither one is right nor wrong, it all just comes down to each and every individual’s preferences.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope this information was beneficial to you and will help you in the future. For the most part I am a kind person that enjoys interactions with others, but if I am sleep deprived for too long, I tend to have some mood swings. I do try my best to avoid this though because then I will feel awful if I wasn’t nice to someone. I would love to read your thoughts on this information though and promise to respond as quickly as I can.

I hope your week is going well and you are feeling the best you can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love , comfort, and many positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa