It is common. We talk regarding the feeling of anxiety on a Sunday followingnoon at the prospect of what we imagine the week will be like. The discomfort can be light, but really intense, to the point of significantly shortening our weekend.
They call them “Sunday fears” and they are responsible for more than one heart attack. Stress and anxiety levels tend to rise higher than necessary on Sunday nights and this is an obvious health risk. It is putting your head on the pillow and soon, the factory of excessive concern is lit, the one that only anticipates fatalities before the proximity of the beginning of the week.
Thus, and although popular culture tells us regarding the classic boredom of Sunday followingnoon, the reality is different. The weekend passes us by in a sigh, in the blink of an eye that places us almost instantly on that border close to Monday. Returning to the routine is sometimes terrifying and returns us to a reality full of uncertainties, pressures and obligations that overwhelm us.
In a study by The Sleep Judge (an organization that helps people get a good night’s sleep) it was found that nearly 80 percent of the population experiences a spike in anxiety on Sundays. This discomfort appears timidly in the morning, but as the day progresses, the levels of cortisol and adrenaline increase their presence in our body.
And the effects are not good… Let’s delve a little deeper into a reality that, far from normalizing, we must know how to handle.
Changing our Sunday routines can help us alleviate that burden of discomfort that arises as the start of the week approaches.
When work (or lack of it) takes away our health
Anxiety, stress, anguish, discomfort… We can define that negative state that precedes the start of the week in many ways. However, in all cases there is the same underlying root: it is a response to a perceived threat. Thus, and although it is true that the vast majority manage to face and manage that Sunday discomfort, for many people this experience is paralyzing.
We know that the younger population experiences more anxiety during those last hours of the weekend. Both millennials and Gen Z describe an overwhelming sense of pressure. On the other hand, if the worries are more intense on Sunday nights, let’s not think that the cause is only work related. There are more variables.
What is the origin?
The most common factor has to do with work stress. The pressure of performance, the need to meet certain objectives, sometimes added to poor working conditions and even harassment or mobbing, shape this recurring anguish.
Unemployment, both temporary and chronic, shows a greater peak of anxiety on Sundays. The reason? It is that moment of the week in which we usually prepare ourselves for the return to the work routine. When this fails, when there is no job to return to on Monday, the psychological discomfort is more pronounced.
Monday is also that day when students return to class. This sector of the population also experiences a notable load of pressure, self-demands, anxiety regarding classes, exams, etc.
Likewise, there is another no less important origin. Many people deal with the difficulty of combining family life and work life. The idea of seeing how the weekend vanishes and the opportunity to share more time with the children or the couple is lived in a stressful way.
What symptoms does it present?
Sunday fears give rise to a wide range of symptoms, which may be different in each person. However, there are always some common elements that distinguish this anguish, this discomfort on the last day of the week:
Restlessness, not being able to stop thinking regarding going back to work, to classes, to pending tasks.
Those thought cycles are always ruminant and catastrophic.
Tachycardias appear.
Fatigue.
Difficulty getting to sleep.
Bad mood.
Not being able to concentrate on anything or enjoy leisure.
Losing your appetite or overeating.
When worries are most intense, digestive problems are common on Sunday nights.
Headaches appear.
People who on Sundays can not stop thinking regarding their pending tasks and what they must do during the week are at greater risk of suffering from anxiety attacks to heart attacks.
The worries are more intense on Sunday nights: what can we do?
In 1991, The New York Times already published an article regarding the “Sunday blues”. In this analysis, aspects such as job insecurity were discussed, as well as other triggers of this phenomenon, such as alterations in the biological rhythm, even disenchantment with one’s own lifestyle.
In other words, although it is true that this fear of Monday is a collective phenomenon, each one must address within their own reality those elements that orchestrate said psychological discomfort. Let’s not normalize “being bad”. If the beginning of the week is perceived as a threat, let’s do our best to make that perception of danger disappear. Let’s look at some keys.
1. Listen to the message, is there anything you can change?
Stress and anxiety are nothing more than natural mechanisms that warn us of a risk, a real threat or not. What if we listen to your message? What if we face what causes us discomfort so that it stops doing it?
Perhaps we should resolve aspects related to work, study or our personal life so that this anguish towards Monday stops being present.
2. Rewrite your Sundays: they should be days of calm and balance
If the worries are more intense on Sunday nights, it’s time to put on another “mental movie”. One devoid of fears and anxieties.
You have to lower the volume of concern and raise the volume of calm and confidence. We have to stop being catastrophic and become more reasonable, logical and hopeful. Most likely, nothing of what we imagine will happen.
Let’s not hesitate to schedule our Sundays a little better:
Let’s socialize, hang out with friends or family.
Let’s go for a walk, let’s get in touch with nature.
Let’s take naps, spend time on artistic tasks. Research from the University of Applied Sciences in Leiden, in the Netherlands, speaks of the benefits of art to reduce anxiety and stress.
3. Schedule your Monday to be more attractive
Sunday fears can dissipate if Mondays become the container of more luminous, friendly and exciting moments. The small changes that break the iron routines are sometimes necessary and even cathartic. Therefore, let’s not hesitate to transfer to that first day of the week some activity that motivates us and makes us happy.
To conclude, we all know that worries are more intense on Sunday nights. It is that meridian of the week in which the mind becomes somewhat meditative and one calibrates one’s life, while Monday looms with its pressures and demands. Let’s avoid falling into that void, into that black hole that consumes spirit and even hope.
There are always changes that we can apply so that perception changes. Let’s start with the smallest to see what happens. Let’s change our mentality to see what happens. Let’s face the problems to subtract Sunday anxieties and see what improvements it brings us…
Source: The Mind is Wonderful
