Depression is one of the most common mood disorders out there. Many people who struggle with depression seek to complement conventional treatments with natural mood enhancers. Others may not have a diagnosis of depression but simply want to regain a sense of emotional control and get out of a rough patch. In this post, we’ll review various lifestyle changes and other natural strategies that may help boost mood, and what the science currently says about them. Read on to learn which ones work.
Disclaimer: This post is not a recommendation or endorsement for any particular type of mental health treatment. The only way to be sure you get effective treatment is to discuss your options with your personal doctor — and none of the complementary approaches described below should ever be used to replace what your doctor has prescribed or recommended. We have written this post for informational purposes only, and its goal is simply to inform our readers about the science behind some complementary treatment strategies, and what we know about how they might work.
Can You Boost Your Mood Naturally?
Overview
In addition to consulting with trained mental health professionals to get specific forms of therapy, there is some evidence suggesting that a number of lifestyle and other behavioral adjustments may be helpful in keeping mood issues at bay, and may even boost mood in otherwise-healthy users.
In this post, we’ll review some of the many “non-pharmaceutical” approaches to mental health treatment — such as psychotherapy — as well as discuss what the science currently says about a number of psychological factors that may also have effects on a person’s mood.
We’ll also review a number of supplements and other compounds with at least some suggestive evidence of having effects on mood, although these findings are still early and are generally not yet strong enough to draw solid conclusions from.
Precautions
However, these lifestyle-based approaches should not be used to replace conventional treatment — especially for people who have been officially diagnosed with a specific psychiatric condition! These are complementary approaches only, meaning that while they may help support and enhance the effectiveness of conventional treatments, they are probably not sufficient just on their own.
When to See a Doctor
As always, be sure to discuss any significant lifestyle, dietary, or other changes with your doctor first before embarking on any of the “complementary” strategies discussed throughout this post! In other words, you can consider trying the strategies listed below if you and your doctor determine that they could be appropriate for you.
With that in mind, in the rest of this post we’ll discuss some of the many non-drug-based treatments for depression and other mood disorders, and what science currently says about them.
Although most of these only have weak or insufficient evidence to support them, many of them have early studies that suggest that they could have some potential when used to complement other, more conventional forms of treatment. Nonetheless, all of these preliminary findings will still have to be extensively followed up on by future research to confirm their efficacy, safety, and underlying mechanisms.
Lifestyle Changes & Other Natural Factors that May Boost Mood
1) Mindfulness Meditation
The goal of mindfulness meditation is to become a “witness” rather than a “judge” of events that happen to you.
Mindfulness meditation has been reported to alleviated depression, with benefits lasting up to 6 months [1].
It has also been reported to reduce symptoms associated with acute major depressive episodes [2].
According to one randomized control trial (RCT) of 99 depression patients, those who practiced mindfulness meditation for at least 3 days per week were reported to be half as likely to relapse into depression as those who did not [3].
Mindfulness meditation has also been reported to improve attention and emotional self-control, both of which are important for healthy mood [4].
Mindfulness reportedly decreased activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain associated with negative emotions and depression symptoms [5].
People who meditate regularly have been reported to have increased levels of GABA, and reduced levels of cortisol and norepinephrine [6, 7].
According to a study of 16 healthy people, mindfulness meditation for 27 minutes/day for 8 weeks increased gray matter in the hippocampus — a brain area is often smaller in people in depression, and which is believed to play some role in the development of depression symptoms [8, 9].
2) Yoga
Several large-scale meta-analyses of yoga studies (RCTs) suggest that it may have a number of potential benefits for alleviating depression and other mood issues, compared to standard antidepressant treatments [10, 11].
For example, yoga has been reported to:
- reduce depression symptoms (in an RCT of 139 seniors) [12].
- reduce symptoms in 100 patients with mild depression (RCTs) [13, 14].
- reduce PTSD symptoms, depression, and anxiety (in women with diagnosed PTSD) [15].
- reduce depression more than standard antidepressants in a study of 137 patients [16].
Yoga reportedly lowers cortisol, which may in turn result in reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as lower amounts of perceived stress [17, 18, 19].
Practicing yoga has also been reported to increase levels of BDNF, endorphins, and serotonin — all mechanisms that have been associated with mood, and which may in part account for some of the claimed benefits of yoga [20, 21].
According to one study, just one single yoga session was reported to increase GABA levels in 8 participants [22]. However, most of the other studies described above only reported significant results from longer periods of yoga practice, ranging from 1-3 weekly sessions of 30-75 minutes each, for 4 – 12 weeks. Therefore, if you’re interested in adopting a yoga practice to potentially boost your mood, it’s probably better to develop a consistent long-term habit in order to increase the likelihood of seeing benefits from it.
3) Exercise
Exercise is another lifestyle factor with a lot of evidence supporting a major role in regulating — and even potentially improving — mood.
For example, regular exercisers are reported to have lower rates of depression, and physical activity is associated with decreased depression risk [23, 24].
Individuals with a prior history of depression who maintain physical fitness are also reportedly less likely to relapse into depression [25].
Aerobic exercise, resistance training, and a combination of the two have been reported to reduce depression symptoms [26, 27].
According to one 156-person study (RCT) of exercise vs sertraline (an antidepressant medication), aerobic exercise reportedly improved depression symptoms to a similar degree as the drug [28].
Similarly, according to another study (RCT), exercisers reportedly maintained lower depression symptoms and improved quality-of-life for a longer period than people who went through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) [29].
Inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain are believed to contribute to depression. Although exercise promotes short-term inflammation, it has long-term anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which may partially explain some of the reported benefits of exercise on mood and overall mental well-being [30, 31].
Some evidence also suggests that exercise may increase serotonin, dopamine, BDNF, norepinephrine, and endorphins — all mechanisms that have been associated with mood and mental health in some way or another [32, 33, 34].
Several studies suggest that people with depression often have an overactive HPA axis, a brain system that is believed to play a major role in stress and mood. Regular exercise has been associated with lower HPA-axis reactivity in both humans and animals, and is therefore another mechanism which may account for some of the reported mood benefits associated with exercising regularly [35, 36].
Both moderate-intensity exercise (e.g., cycling, brisk walking) and high-intensity exercise (e.g., running, swimming) have been associated with potential benefits in depression [27].
For moderate-intensity exercise, some studies suggest that the potential benefits may be best achieved with at least 150 minutes per week, broken up into multiple 30-minute sessions [37].
4) Sunlight
Some evidence also suggests that how much natural light (sunlight) we get can also sometimes play a significant role in a person’s overall mood and well-being.
For example, exposure to bright light in the morning helps synchronize the circadian rhythm of several neurotransmitters involved in regulating mood, and which are often reported to be disrupted in people experiencing depression and other mood-related conditions [38, 39, 40].
Additionally, patients with bipolar depression have been reported to recover faster if they had a window facing east to the morning sun [41].
Self-reported sun exposure was associated with less depression symptoms and fatigue in one study of 198 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) [42].
People with depression have been reported to have vitamin D levels that are up to 14% lower than normal [43]. Sunlight increases vitamin D production [44].
The first enzyme of serotonin production (tryptophan hydroxylase) is found in human skin. By interacting with and “activating” this enzyme, sun exposure may help increase serotonin (and the number of its receptors) throughout the brain, according to a few studies [45, 46].
Natural light has also been reported to increase dopamine (and dopamine DRD2 receptors), which may also account for some of its purported beneficial effects on mood [47, 46].
Sunlight also increases relaxation by producing endorphins — hormones that are most well-known for their role in producing the “runner’s high” that some people associate with exercise [48].
5) Light Therapy
While a considerable amount of evidence suggests that sunlight can be quite important for mood and mental well-being, it’s simply not always possible to get as much sunlight as you might need! This is where “light therapy” can come in.
“Light therapy” typically involves placing a “light box” (usually with a brightness of about 10,000 lux) nearby for 30 minutes each morning shortly after waking up [49].
Light therapy has been reported to be especially effective for seasonal affective disorder (“SAD”), as the bright artificial light offsets the lack of sunlight that people often experience during the winter months [49].
Bright light therapy was reported to reduce depression in one study (RCT) of 99 people with winter seasonal depression [50].
Even though light therapy is best for seasonal depression, some evidence suggests that it may also help non-seasonal forms of depression as well. For example, light therapy was reported to reduce depression symptoms according to one study (DB-RCT) of 122 patients with non-seasonal depression [51].
All in all, light therapy alone will probably not “cure” depression or other mood issues entirely on its own — but it may be a helpful addition to other strategies for managing mood problems in psychiatric patients, and may potentially have some “mood-boosting” effects in otherwise healthy people as well. As long as it’s used at an appropriate time of day (i.e. not at night or too close to bedtime), it may be a relatively low-risk lifestyle strategy to try out.
6) Minimizing Light at Night
Although some evidence suggests that natural light and light therapy may have some effects on mood, there are also contexts in which light can potentially have negative effects.
One major example of this is exposure to light in the evening or at night. This can potentially throw off the circadian rhythm (for example, by “tricking” the brain into thinking it’s daytime), which can in turn have negative effects on a person’s ability to get enough high-quality sleep.
For example, exposure to light at night has been associated with depression and sleep issues in a few studies [52, 53].
In a handful of animal studies, dim light at night increased depression behaviors, TNF-alpha, and brain inflammation [54, 55].
One good (and low-risk) way to potentially manage light issues at night is to minimize your “screen time” in the evenings. This is because many modern digital devices — including phones, tablets, and computers — emit a lot of blue light, which has a particularly strong effect on how our bodies regulate its circadian rhythm.
7) Improving Sleep Quality
The amount of (high-quality) sleep that a person gets can be a major factor when it comes to influencing their overall mood and mental well-being.
Additionally, sleep problems such as insomnia have been reported to be a potential trigger of depression. Furthermore, depression may sometimes even worsen insomnia, which can create a negative feedback effect on a person’s overall mental health. For example, nearly 75% of depressed patients report difficulty falling or staying asleep, and this probably plays at least some role in reinforcing some of the symptoms of mood disorders [56].
Similarly, patients with insomnia have been reported to have up to 2-3 times greater risk of developing depression than those without insomnia [57, 58].
Sleep deprivation has been reported to interfere with the growth and function of the hippocampus, a brain area frequently associated with mood [59, 60]. Sleep deprivation may also cause distorted thoughts and increased emotional reactivity, which are some of the hallmark symptoms of depression and other mood disorders [61].
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia improves sleep quality and depression symptoms [62, 63, 64].
Therefore, improving sleep quality can be an important factor when it comes to treating mood-related psychiatric conditions, and most likely also plays a major role in shaping mood in healthy people as well.
8) Chronotherapy
In addition to the general importance of sleep to mood and overall mental well-being, some evidence suggests that disruption of the circadian rhythm — the natural daily rhythm that governs our sleep-wake cycle and many other important bodily functions — can also have a significant impact on mood.
For example, depressed individuals are often reported to have a disrupted circadian rhythm, which is believed to play at least some role in contributing to the mood-related symptoms of depression [40].
This is where “chronotherapy” — which is a fancy word for using a specific pattern of sleep and sleep deprivation to adjust the body’s circadian rhythm — comes in.
Therapy involving total sleep deprivation, sleep phase advance, and bright light therapy (called “triple chronotherapy”) has been reported to reduce depression symptoms relatively quickly and sustainably [65].
Compared to daily exercise, triple chronotherapy reportedly provided immediate relief and greater response and recovery in a study (RCT) of 75 adults with major depression [66].
Similarly, a study of 23 depression patients reported that triple chronotherapy may significantly reduce depressive and suicidal symptoms [67, 68].
Sleep deprivation is also believed to increase the short-term activity of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine — some of the major neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood [69].
One study reported that triple chronotherapy restored the normal circadian rhythm of serotonin and dopamine activity in the brain, which are believed to often be disturbed in depression [40].
Chronotherapy is actually a somewhat complex process, and is best done with the aid and supervision of a trained medical professional. Therefore, we don’t recommend or endorse doing this casually on your own!
If you’re interested in trying it out, you should at least discuss it with your doctor first, as going through sleep deprivation can come with its own set of potential risks, and could have unpredictable effects on your physical and mental health that only a doctor can help you to manage.
That being said, the process of “triple chronotherapy” typically involves at least one initial day of total sleep deprivation, followed by up to 5 additional days where the patient moves their bedtime earlier and earlier in the evening. Light exposure (such as by using a “light device”) is also often included in the procedure to help the body’s circadian rhythm adjust to its new sleep schedule. In theory, this procedure results in a more stable and regular circadian rhythm after about a week, after which it is generally easier to maintain in the long term [66].
9) Massages
Surprisingly, some evidence suggests that getting massaged can have noticeable effects on a person’s mood.
For example, massage therapy has been reported to reduce mood symptoms in patients diagnosed with depression [70].
Massages have also been reported to [71]:
- lower depression and anxiety symptoms
- increase dopamine and serotonin levels, two important neurotransmitters for mood and overall mental functioning
- lower cortisol and norepinephrine levels, two compounds that are believed to play a role in stress and emotional reactivity
However, it’s possible that at least some of these supposed “benefits” are not necessarily specific to massage, but might instead just be general benefits associated with touch and physical contact — and more research will be needed to tease these two possibilities apart.
10) Acupuncture
Although acupuncture is not a highly-studied topic among scientists, there are a few preliminary studies that suggest that it might have some noticeable effects on mood.
For example, acupuncture for 30 minutes was reported to reduce depression symptoms in one study (RCT) of 30 patients with treatment-resistant depression [72].
Acupuncture also reportedly increased opioid, serotonin, dopamine, and GABA activity, while inhibiting norepinephrine and glutamate [73].
According to one animal study, acupuncture reportedly elevated levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the hippocampus of rats [74].
However, while this early evidence is somewhat promising, a lot more research will be needed to figure out for sure what the potential effects of acupuncture might be on mood in healthy humans.
Also, similar to the reported effects of massage on mood, it’s possible that the acupuncture effects reported by some of the above studies might simply be due to the physical touch and social contact that is involved in acupuncture — so future studies on acupuncture will also have to disentangle these two possibilities in order to make any solid conclusions about the benefits of acupuncture techniques specifically.
11) Vagus Nerve Stimulation
The vagus nerve plays a central role in the “rest-and-digest” (parasympathetic) nervous system.
Because of these connections, some research has looked into the possibility of using vagus nerve stimulation to address many different aspects of physical and mental health, including mood.
However, the research behind this is still in a very early stage, and should be taken with a grain of salt. A lot more studies will have to be done — especially in healthy human populations — to determine the exact effects and potential benefits of vague nerve stimulation.
With that in mind, here are a few preliminary results that may point the way towards potential uses of vagus nerve stimulation, which will hopefully be followed up on by more studies in the future:
According to one study, stimulating the vague nerve was reported to improve depression symptoms and outcomes (such as antidepressant treatment response and likelihood of remission) in 85 patients [75, 76].
According to another study, vagus nerve stimulation was reported to increase blood flow to various brain regions — some of which have been associated with depression, especially when optimal blood flow to them is lacking [77].
Some of the mental effects of vagus nerve stimulation may be due to increased levels of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin — although this is only one of many potential mechanisms that may account for some of these early findings, and so more research will still be needed [78].
12) Expressive Writing
In expressive writing, individuals write deeply about a troubling or emotional event [79].
As you can probably imagine, this can often be pretty unpleasant in short term! However, the idea is that even though it can be upsetting in moment, writing about feelings in this way may help a person’s ability to cope with their negative emotions, and may possibly lead to noticeable long-term improvements in their mood and general mental well-being.
In fact, because emotions aren’t “just in your brain”, but rather can affect your entire body, some early evidence even suggests that this approach to writing about feelings may even have effects on some aspects of your “physical” health as well.
For example, expressive writing has been reported to lead to improvements in immune system function as well as mental well-being [80, 81].
According to one study (RCT) in 40 depression patients, writing about deep thoughts related to an emotional event for 20 minutes over 3 consecutive days was reported to reduce depression symptoms [82].
In another study (RCT) of 102 chronic pain patients, individuals who wrote letters expressing their anger were reported to experience improvements in their ability to control some of their symptoms of depression [83].
13) Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback training provides participants real-time information on the activity of certain brain regions.
In theory, neurofeedback training teaches people to self-control their brain activity, although this idea is still quite controversial, and the overall scientific evidence is quite mixed.
According to one study, neurofeedback training was reported to improve depressive symptoms in 29 patients with depression, and may have reduced their risk of remission [84, 85].
Similarly, another study (RCT) of 24 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients reported that neurofeedback training reduced their symptoms of depression and fatigue [86].
However, these are only two studies with relatively small sample sizes, and a lot more research will be needed to confirm whether or not neurofeedback training has any significant benefits in treating mood-related symptoms or issues.
Additionally, neurofeedback training typically requires expensive equipment, and can generally only be done with the help and supervision of trained professionals. For this reason, it’s often not feasible or recommended to try these techniques at home on your own. If you’re interested in giving neurofeedback a shot, the safest thing to do is to look around to see if there are qualified licensed professionals in your area who can administer it to you.
14) Cold Exposure
Some early evidence suggests that exposing the body to extreme cold temperatures may stimulate some physical processes that could, in turn, affect a person’s mood.
For example, whole-body cryotherapy was reported to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms in one study of 60 depression/anxiety patients [87].
Cold exposure also reportedly increases blood- and brain levels of norepinephrine and endorphins, two brain compounds which are believed to play a role in mood, stress, and other factors involved in mental well-being [88, 89, 90].
15) Transcranial Photobiomodulation (PBM)
Transcranial photobiomodulation — or PBM for short — has been reported to reduce depressive symptoms and increase “positive emotions” in one study of 54 individuals [91, 92, 93].
In theory, the idea is that infrared light stimulates neurogenesis, inhibits brain oxidative stress and inflammation, and increases brain energy utilization — all of which are processes that are potentially involved in mood [94].
Transcranial PBM devices are available online. For example, the Vielight 810 nm device improved cognitive function in dementia patients [95].
16) Saunas
Similar to the theory behind “cryotherapy”, there is some preliminary evidence that exposure to very hot and humid temperatures may have some mental effects as well.
For example, a single session of heat therapy was reported to improve depression symptoms in a study of 10 cancer patients [96].
According to another study, 15 minutes per day of infrared sauna use for 4 weeks was reported to improve depression symptoms and anger in a study (RCT) of 46 chronic pain patients [97].
Some researchers have proposed that sauna use may stimulate the production or release of endorphins, which may account for some of the purported mood effects of heat exposure [98, 99, 100].
However, much more research will still be needed to confirm these effects and their possible mechanisms.
Takeaway
Scientific studies looked at various non-pharmacological or natural mood enhancers, which range from psychological approaches to lifestyle changes to experimental devices.
Solid evidence supports mindfulness meditation, yoga, and exercise for boosting mood.
Light therapy or getting enough natural sunlight might also help, but research is in the early stages.
Also look to get restful sleep, since mood disorders are more common in people with insomnia. Plus, it might be a good idea to turn off your phone and other electronic devices at night, since blue light might act as a circadian disruptor.
Less researched approaches that may also help support good mood include massages, acupuncture, and vagus nerve stimulation. Chronotherapy is also being studied, but its safety is unclear.
