New research from Southern Methodist University suggests that those looking to make more progress in overcoming their anxiety, fears, and phobias should schedule their appointments for therapy in the morning. The research is based on the biochemistry of your body that may influence biorhythms. The natural hormone, Cortisol, is at it’s highest peak in the morning hours.

Cortisol is thought to help with fear extinction in some situations. Alicia E. Meuret the lead author of this research says “Drugs to enhance fear extinction are being investigated, but they can be difficult to administer and have yielded mixed results. The findings of our study promote taking advantage of two simple and naturally occurring agents — our own cortisol and time of day.”

Because the levels of cortisol are higher in the morning, it is speculated that the higher levels might aid in enhanced early benefits. It does however remain unclear which areas cortisol enhances the early exposure. Other factors that researchers think cortisol helps is memory, sleep, attention control, and more.

For more about cortisol and therapy in the morning visit Psych Central HERE