Sunday Scaries: Why Sunday Anxiety Happens and How to Cope

It’s Sunday evening, the sun is setting, and so are your hopes on a fun, relaxing day. You’re sitting right down on the couch watching TV, when suddenly you realize with horror that your stomach has begun to do interpretive dance for you. One moment you were taking it easy, and the next, your tummy was doing gymnastics because Monday is coming. This relatable situation has a fancy name and almost everybody knows about it the dreaded “Sunday Scaries”.

Research shows that the condition is more than a popular buzzword. It is a form of anticipatory anxiety, and studies of the working week show that the body really does react differently on a Monday morning than on a Sunday morning (Devereux et al., 2011). Let’s look at the contributing factors and solutions.

What Are the Sunday Scaries, Really?

The Sunday Scaries are otherwise known as “anticipatory anxiety”, a type of anxiety that is defined by worry over a future event that has yet to occur. Researchers describe anxiety as a future-oriented state, as it depicts the preparedness of one’s being in anticipation of something that might potentially transpire. The mind and body prepare themselves for an oncoming threat when the individual is unsure of the outcome (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013).

In other words, the panicking begins before the event occurs. Moreover, according to studies, the anxiety that occurs before a specific event could be even more damaging than the event itself. Grupe and Nitschke (2013) point out that worry in advance of unpleasant events can be more important for understanding anxiety than the reaction to the events when they arrive. This is why a Sunday night can feel worse than the Monday morning it is warning you about. 

Read More: What Is the Sunday Scaries?

Five Reasons Behind the Sunday Scaries

Several common situations contribute to the Sunday-night dread. Here are five of the most common.

Reason 1: The anticipation is often more stressful than reality.

As the lazy days of the weekend give way to a busy and structured week, the body produces more of the stress hormone cortisol to meet the new demands. In one study of 77 office workers, cortisol measured right after waking was higher on Monday than on Sunday morning. The rise was biggest in people who had demanding jobs and were also thinking a lot about the workday ahead (Devereux et al., 2011). This is the body’s “fight-or-flight” alarm, the automatic system that prepares you to face danger or run from it. It ends up getting you ready for a battle that is not coming.

Reason 2: Work Stress (Even From Jobs You Like)

People may think the Sunday Scaries happen because you dread going to work, but that is not necessarily true. Even people who love their jobs can feel it. One reason is that passion for work comes in two kinds. In studies of nurses, people with “obsessive” passion, the kind where you cannot let go of work, had more clashes between work and the rest of their lives, and those clashes were linked to burnout, which is long-lasting exhaustion caused by work stress.

People with “harmonious” passion, who enjoy their work without letting it take over, did not show the same pattern (Vallerand et al., 2010). The workplace itself can add to the pressure. When people are unsure what is expected of them a condition psychologists call role ambiguity they report more tension and less satisfaction with their jobs (Jackson & Schuler, 1985). Leftover uncertainty from one week can easily turn into anxiety the next.

Read More: How to Handle Work Stress and Avoid Leaving Your Job?

Reason 3: Unfinished business

An overflowing to-do list can haunt both your planner and your mind. Leftover tasks and things to do can often be the reason one can’t fall asleep at night, staring at the ceiling. In a sleep lab test, young adults who spent 5 minutes before bedtime writing down a to-do list were able to fall asleep faster than their counterparts who simply wrote about tasks they’ve completed. The more descriptive, the faster one fell asleep (Scullin et al., 2018) Getting worries out of your head and onto paper seems to give the mind permission to let go. So don’t be surprised if you spend your entire weekend avoiding thinking about that presentation due on Monday, and it turns around and haunts you all night Sunday.

Read More: The Zeigarnik Effect: Why Unfinished Tasks Stay Stuck in Your Mind

Reason 4: Disrupted Routines and Loss of Freedom

Weekends are free, so you decide when to sleep, what to eat, and what to do. At work, the opposite is true, and everything has its schedule. Researchers use the term “psychological detachment” for the ability to mentally switch off from work during free time. People who manage to detach recover better from work and feel less worn out (Sonnentag, 2012). Sunday evening is when that break ends. The timetable, the demands, and the loss of control are about to return, so the mind starts tightening up early.

Reason 5: Constant Connectivity

Technology hasn’t made it any easier. Researchers use the word “telepressure” for the urge to reply to work messages right away. People who feel it recover less from work, and they report more burnout, more missed workdays, and poorer sleep (Barber & Santuzzi, 2015). Your brain is already preparing itself for the sound of an alert by the time Monday rolls around.

Read More: Understanding Psychological Distress In The Age Of Constant Connectivity

Who Feels It the Most?

Younger workers are often said to feel the Sunday Scaries the most. Large surveys support the general idea. In a survey done among over 340,000 Americans, respondents who were younger adults reported the highest levels of stress, and stress decreased steadily with age (Stone et al., 2010). In contrast to the study above, which looked at general sources of stress, early careers, such as college or a new job, would entail more stress due to decreased autonomy, heightened expectations, and financial burdens like student loans that add weight to the upcoming week. 

Simple Ways to Make the Transition Easier

The good news is that the Sunday Scaries don’t have to take over your life. With just a few minor adjustments, you can make sure that Monday morning won’t be as horrifying as it typically is:

• Do a brain dump. Write everything floating around in the head onto paper before Sunday evening. Putting tasks on a list can quiet the mind and help you fall asleep faster (Scullin et al.,2018).
• Protect your sleep. Aim for 7–9 hours a night (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015). Even small night-to-night drops in sleep predict more anxiety the next day, which can then make the next night’s sleep worse too (Ben Simon et al., 2020).
• Plan something fun this weekend. Do not focus on the mundane tasks only; engaging in enjoyable activities allow one’s mind to totally unwind from work-related matters, and those who tend to disengage during their leisure time recover better (Sonnentag, 2012).
• Silence work notifications. Turn them off or use “do not disturb” so you are not reminded of tasks during your time off (Barber & Santuzzi, 2015).
• Plan the week ahead, even for fifteen minutes. Uncertainty is a key driver of anticipatory anxiety (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013), so knowing what is coming takes some of the fear out of Monday.

In case things do not get better, it helps to know where “normal” ends. A certain degree of tension before the week begins is normal and anxiety useful but when it takes too big a proportion in comparison with the situation it causes some distress (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013). If the dread starts as early as on Friday, prolongs until Tuesday, causes such symptoms as headache or tiredness, or begins to affect relationships, it is a good time to consult a doctor or a therapist. Seeking help is not a sign of a problem but a sensible solution. 

Read More: The Rise of Calendar Anxiety: Living Life by Scheduled Time

Conclusion

The Sunday Scaries are not an indication that something is wrong with a person but rather a reaction that a person’s mind has to the prospect of returning to work. Anticipatory anxiety, an increase in stress hormones, unfinished work, the end of the weekend freedom, and constant notifications all contribute to the malaise, even for people who enjoy their jobs, and there are practical solutions for each of them.

Putting worries down on paper, protecting one’s sleep, planning an enjoyable activity, turning off work alerts, and outlining the upcoming week can all help, but seeking professional help if the dread persists or interferes with the whole week of work is the ultimate course of action. Here is one small tip to try this Sunday. Set a timer for 15 mins, write down everything on your mind. Pick your top three tasks for Monday. Close the notebook. Monday will come regardless of our plans but how we tackle it is what we can control.

References +

• Barber, L. K., & Santuzzi, A. M. (2015). Please respond ASAP: Workplace telepressure and employee recovery. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(2), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038278
• Ben Simon, E., Rossi, A., Harvey, A. G., & Walker, M. P. (2020). Overanxious and underslept. Nature
• Human Behaviour, 4(1), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0754-8
• Devereux, J., Rydstedt, L. W., & Cropley, M. (2011). An exploratory study to assess the impact of work demands and the anticipation of work on awakening saliva cortisol. Psychological Reports, 108(1),
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• Jackson, S. E., & Schuler, R. S. (1985). A meta-analysis and conceptual critique of research on role ambiguity and role conflict in work settings. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,36(1), 16–78.
• Scullin, M. K., Krueger, M. L., Ballard, H. K., Pruett, N., & Bliwise, D. L. (2018). The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(1), 139–146.https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000374
• Sonnentag, S. (2012). Psychological detachment from work during leisure time: The benefits of mentally disengaging from work. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(2), 114–118.
• Stone, A. A., Schwartz, J. E., Broderick, J. E., & Deaton, A. (2010). A snapshot of the age distribution of psychological well-being in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(22), 9985–9990. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1003744107
• Vallerand, R. J., Paquet, Y., Philippe, F. L., & Charest, J. (2010). On the role of passion for work in burnout:A process model. Journal of Personality, 78(1), 289–312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00616.x