If I were asked “Are you happy?”, I think I would probably answer “Yes.”

The reason is that the first half of my life was so packed with unhappy events that I formed the equation “a not-unhappy situation = a happy situation,” but can unhappiness and happiness be explained by the same factors (how much unhappiness one suffers, etc.)?

The paper I discuss today examines whether cortisol values, which are often used as a stress indicator, can be used as an indicator for happiness.

In the experiment, 47 young adults were surveyed about their antidepressive tendencies and subjective happiness and satisfaction, and the relationship between these and cortisol secretion patterns was investigated.

Cortisol is characterized by large fluctuations throughout the day, where it increases rapidly in the first 30 minutes after waking, before gradually decreasing after that.

However, in depression patients, cortisol levels maintain the high level from directly after waking and tend not to decrease.

This research investigates the relation between happiness and cortisol, based on this fluctuation pattern and cortisol levels at various times.

The results show that cortisol values and their fluctuation patterns relate to antidepressive tendencies but not to happiness, and therefore physiologically, happiness cannot be represented with the indicator cortisol.

I thought that not being unhappy and being happy are different phenomena in physiological terms.

title: The Relations Between Morning Cortisol Secretion Pattern, Morning Cortisol levels, and Affective States

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