Journaling is the advice everyone gives and almost nobody keeps up during a bad month. A one-line evening text does the same job in thirty seconds.

Low days have patterns you cannot see from inside them. A two-week evening check-in by text, read the right way, finds the one thing that keeps showing up.

We matched CDC estimates of short sleep and frequent mental distress for every US county. The link is strong, and useful to anyone tracking their mood.

A way to track your mood in a few words a day, plus CDC survey data on how many low days a typical month actually contains.