Survey Says: We Know if Our Day Is Ruined by 8:36 A.M.

Even if you’re the kind of person who springs out of bed ready to conquer the world, you have to admit: mornings are chaos just waiting to happen. And now, science (okay, a survey) backs that up.

According to new research, the average person knows if their day is officially ruined by 8:36 A.M. (No, they didn’t just poll people who wake up at 8:35.)

Whether it’s a missed alarm, a screaming child, or a mysteriously non-functioning coffee maker, it doesn’t take much for things to unravel early.

The survey found that most people experience four “bad days” a month, or about 48 per year.

That’s almost one a week where everything seems to go sideways before breakfast. So what’s behind these early-morning meltdowns? Here are the top 10 ways we know the day is doomed:

1. Waking up and feeling sick – 35%
2. Sleeping poorly throughout the night – 31%
3. Waking up with a headache – 29%
4. Losing your keys – 26%
5. Forgetting your phone at home – 25%
6. Running out of toilet paper – 22%
7. Forgetting your wallet at home – 22%
8. Sleeping through your alarm – 19%
9. Realizing you forgot to charge your phone – 18%
10. Stubbing your toe – 17%

It’s a reminder that sometimes the little things—like stepping barefoot on a LEGO or discovering the milk is gone—can feel like a cosmic betrayal, even before 9 a.m.

But hey, if we know the day’s off track early, that means we’ve got all day to turn it around, right? Or at least time to hit the reset button… after a fresh cup of coffee and maybe a bandage for that toe.