Evening anxiety isn’t just in your head. It might be in your morning routine

It’s 5pm. Your inbox is still overflowing, your energy has flatlined and somehow, the weight of the day feels heavier now than it did at noon. You’re not sad or panicking, but something is off. This is what many people have come to call evening anxiety—a low-grade restlessness that surfaces just when the world expects you to wind down.

It’s easy to chalk it up to work stress or overcommitment, but evening anxiety can be physiological as much as psychological. Cortisol, your body’s stress hormone, doesn’t always get the memo that the day is ending. Especially if your morning was chaotic or your fuel tank has been empty since lunch. Add screen fatigue, skipped meals, decision overload and the simmering pressure to relax productively, and you’ve got a cocktail for post-5pm dysregulation.

So what if the solution to evening anxiety doesn’t start in the evening at all? What if it begins with how you wake up?

How cortisol—and caffeine—quietly run your day

Cortisol isn’t exactly the villain here. It’s what helps you wake up, stay alert and move through the day. But it follows a rhythm: it rises in the morning, peaks a few hours in and tapers off toward the evening. That’s the idea, anyway.

When mornings are rushed or fuelled only by caffeine, this natural rhythm gets hijacked, according to studies. You might feel sharp for an hour or two, then crash-land into an afternoon of fog, fidgeting and doomscrolling. By the time the workday ends, your nervous system is still wired, but your mind is out of gas. That’s where evening anxiety creeps in—not as a sudden spike, but as the consequence of a day spent out of sync.

Blood sugar, burnout, and the myth of the “light breakfast”

Skipping breakfast—or worse, relying on chai-biscuit—may feel harmless, but your body keeps the receipts. Per studies, after an initial spike, blood sugar dips in the afternoon can mimic anxiety: shakiness, irritability, a sense of vague dread. Combine that with inbox-induced decision fatigue, and even minor stressors can feel insurmountable.

Eating a balanced breakfast with protein, healthy fats and complex carbs will sustain energy. stabilise your mood, curbs mid-afternoon spirals and gives cortisol a reason to settle down when it’s supposed to.

If your day starts with panic, it will probably end there too

The first 15 minutes of your morning matter more than most productivity hacks will admit. If your day begins with emails and headlines, you’re training your brain to expect urgency before it’s you’ve even had a glass of water.