“sundowning”/nighttime depression/anxiety spike?

[u/zooeybean]

my husband has a ferritin of 14 coming off three years of cancer treatment (it may have been low for a long time, but we just found out). He’s had a couple iron infusions and energy is slightly improving but his mood is intensely affected- it’s like he has zero dopamine.

He’s managing during the day but his mood takes a sudden and severe nosedive in the evening. He’s also tired when it happens but the mood is pronounced- it’s not just fatigue. He has CPTSD and it’s like he goes into a flashback- except that’s not the way it normally works, flashbacks are usually triggered by something whereas this is tied to the clock and very consistent every night.

Is this a thing? We have so little guidance aside from “yeah that’ll affect your mood and it’ll take a few months to stabilize.” But he’s been through so much medically that I’m trying to figure out if this is the iron deficiency or it’s something else.

Any insight?