We all know "that Monday feeling" when the realisation that the weekend is over hits us and we prepare mentally for the working week ahead. All those tasks that you left behind on Friday are there waiting for you again, with many more to add to the list as the days pass until finally, you can have another two days just for you.
But is that really the case? More and more of us have even less time for ourselves at the weekend, to the point that the gloomy ‘Monday feeling’ now starts for a lot of us on Sunday afternoon. We spend most of Saturday catching up on household tasks, and maybe have a few brief hours on Sunday morning to relax, but there's never enough time. As it gets towards early evening, that feeling of dread begins.
Health experts say that the Sunday dip has several causes. Being free from work, we have more time to think about problems or concerns. Maybe the social interaction and connections we have during the week evaporate by Sunday and we start to feel lonely. This lets the mind wander to the imminent return to work. We can already hear the alarm clock going off in the distance and the weekend seems even shorter than it really is.
The experts say that there is a logical explanation for all this. People are under stress all the time. From the moment we battle our way through traffic to get to work to the moment we retreat to doom-scroll on our phones at the end of the day, we are under pressure and stress.
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And then the weekend arrives. But there is shopping to be done, social appointments to plan and then all the household stuff which has been on hold all week. A lot of people also try to get work done over the weekend because five days is never enough to get everything under control.
To avoid all this, most doctors encourage us to switch off entirely from work at the weekend and not only plan rest and recuperation for the end of the week, but find time to recover every day.
Also, planning something fun to do on Sunday evenings can help stave off the blues, but avoid alcohol which can deepen the dip. Go to bed early, read a book, meditate, watch a movie, or just sit in a long relaxing bath to clear your head. By making the last half of Sunday enjoyable and something to look forward to, we can help keep that ‘Sunday feeling’ at bay – at least until Monday!
