深夜テンション (shinyatenshon): “Midnight High” in Japanese Slang

Pronunciation

Definition

深夜テンション (しんやてんしょん, shinya.tenshon) indicates the phenomenon that you experience when you’re staying up late at night. During 深夜テンション, you typically feel high, bold, and somewhat irrational even without drinking. 深夜テンション can bring you the “golden time” when you feel more positive than usual and find anything, even lame jokes or conversations, quite hilarious. Some people end up going overboard and doing something they regret the next day, such as:

• buying very expensive and unnecessary stuff on Amazon
• writing a lengthy and poetic post on Facebook
• sending an overly emotional text like “I love you” or “I can’t help thinking about you” to one’s crush

, and so on. This phenomenon is considered to be caused by the rise in dopamine following sleep deprivation.

Word Structure

深夜テンション consists of the two words “深夜しんや“ and “テンション”. The first word means “midnight” and is composed of the two kanji characters “深しん” meaning “deep” and “夜や” meaning “night”. The latter word “テンション” is loaned from the English word “tension”, but its meaning is completely different from the English word. See the following section for how it is used in Japanese.

テンション (tension) in Japanese

In Japanese, テンション (tension) is used to indicate a person’s emotional state or feeling. For instance, “テンションが高たかい” or “ハイテンション”, which literally means “tension is high” or “high-tension”, actually means “(someone) is excited, giddy or delighted”. Similarly, “テンションが低ひくい”, which means “tension is low”, indicates that someone is down, gloomy, or depressed. Since many Japanese people believe that “tension” in English has the same meaning as テンション, you may sometimes hear them say “You are high-tension!” or the like, which you can interpret as “You look excited!” or “You look delighted!”.

Example Sentences

Ex1
深夜テンションで自分のダンス動画をYouTubeにアップした事は黒歴史だ
It is my 黒歴史 that I uploaded my dance video on YouTube during “midnight high”.

Click here to learn the meaning of “黒歴史”

Ex2
深夜テンションで何なにか重要じゅうような決断けつだんをするのは避さけるべきだ
You should avoid deciding something important when you are in “midnight high” (temporary high at midnight).

Ex3
深夜テンションでブログを書かくと、大抵たいていは翌朝よくあさ後悔こうかいすることになる
If you write a blog during the “midnight high”, you most likely regret that the next morning.

Ex4
深夜テンションだと、くだらない冗談じょうだんでもとても面白おもしろく感かんじる
During “midnight high”, even lame jokes can sound very funny

Synonyms: None
Synonyms in English: temporary high at midnight
Related words and phrases: 深夜 (midnight), テンションが高たかい (excited), テンションが低ひくい (down)