In studies of people isolated in submarines, space stations or polar bunkers in Antarctica, researchers have found there appears to be a point where the frustration of being cooped up inside suddenly gets harder to bear.

You may remember the first phase which started with panic, then buying and confusion. Then we rolled quickly into the second phase, a kind of “honeymoon period”, when it felt fun and different to stay at home.

But now depending on what day you’re on, and how you’ve been navigating all of this, many are entering the third phase. In psychological studies of extreme confinement and isolation, this phase is known as the ‘third-quarter phenomenon’. The phenomenon was first described in the early 1980s and came from a body of research around how long humans could survive in space.