Mental Health Monday: The Science Behind "The Goodnight" Trend

Has your husband or father called thier best friend yet to say goodnight? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're waking up with tip in the morning on Kiss
One Good Morning. It's Mental Health Mondays with Lori Sharpage,
who's our licensed clinical counselor, with just a quick.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Titbit to help the brain a little bit, just a
little bit, just something. You know, you can't fix the
whole world in one Monday, but hopefully this will get
you off to a the right start here. So, this
viral trend of guys calling their best friends and wishing
them a good night is something that I've been scrolling
past for a good solid week plus, but I've been
waiting to have you on the show to talk about

(00:32):
it because I'm sure there's some sort of emotional science
attached to it. So okay, sure, if you're not familiar
with it, I'll play it. But essentially, guys have been
calling their best friends and it's recorded, and they just
out of the blue call and say, hey, I just
wanted to wish you a good night.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Here's a quick clip of an example.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hey, buddy, I was just calling to tell you that
I'm about to go to bed, so I just wanted
to take a night.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I called to tell you I just wanted to say
you good night. Brouh. I'm just calling to say good night,
I love you dogs.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
And for girls calling to wish their best friend good
night would not be as wild and bizarre as it
is for men. What is this?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
So I think this speaks to like intimacy and vulnerability
in a relationship. When you call somebody and you say
good night, there's like an assumption that there's a closeness there, right, yeah,
And I think that's that's the truth for women and
I don't think it's necessarily the truth for men, but
there's still that closeness in their relationship. So when they
go to call each other, it's like, well, this is new,
this is different, this is like I don't know how

(01:41):
to respond to this. And I think that's kind of
the the tension that you feel in those videos, But
they are cute and a lot of times I think
what you really hear is like it means a lot
to the person that they called and said good night,
like and I'm like the night Like it's like cool,
like I love you, you know, And so I think
that speaks to like a level of intimate see in
our relationships, but also the fact that like we are

(02:03):
more and more showing that we are lonely as a population.
We are hyper connected through social media, and so I
think the act of just pick up the phone and
saying good night to somebody feels like, well, that's really special,
Like you you interrupted your routine whatever to reach out
and call me, And so I think that's like the cuteness,
the quirkiness, but the intimacy. And I think it's a

(02:24):
good for once. It is a good viral meme because
I think it's getting people to pick up the phone
and connect in a way that they wouldn't have necessarily
without the meme.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, so if a guy is listening right now, what
would you tell them?

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Pick up the phone and tell your friend good morning.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Maybe not, let's switch it up.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Maybe it's not a good night, it's a good morning.