Before you snap at someone, check if you’re angry or just hungry and running on four hours of sleep.

Short fuses are often a body problem in an emotional costume. Low sleep and no food make everything land harder, so a normal comment arrives as a provocation and you answer the size of the feeling rather than the event. The person in front of you did not cause it. They just happened to be there at hour fourteen.

When irritation spikes, run a quick check: last meal, last night’s sleep, how long since you sat down. If two of the three are bad, wait rather than speak. Almost nothing needs answering in the next ten minutes, and the version of you after a sandwich is more accurate.