I can't sleep because I'm so anxious about going to work tomorrow.

This weekend is especially short. I just took a day off and have to go back to work tomorrow. When I think about this, I started to get nervous at 4 o'clock this afternoon. Every night before the workday, I am overwhelmed by fear and anxiety and have difficulty falling asleep.

What's wrong? In fact, this is the "Sunday anxiety" that workers suffer from. In a week, the most relaxing time is Friday afternoon after get off work and Saturday, while Sunday night will usher in the peak of anxiety.

Every Sunday night I am anxious to the point of tears丨Chengnan Post Office/Weibo

It's normal to feel anxious on Sundays.

It is also controllable

Like all kinds of strange symptoms, Sunday anxiety is also a term created by netizens. It is a reaction of people to the change of life status. On Sunday, people often feel anxious and depressed, have insomnia, lack of concentration, and even feel gastrointestinal discomfort, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

How common is this symptom? In a 2018 survey, LinkedIn, a networking platform, found that 80% of American workers worry about the upcoming work week on Sundays. Another survey showed that the average time people feel Sunday anxiety is 3:58 p.m. So when it's Sunday and you start to feel tired and depressed and don't want to do anything, don't panic, it's Sunday anxiety that's coming to you.

"Whether it's anxiety, stress or fear, it's actually a response to a perceived threat," said Jonathan Abramowitz, a clinical psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "The perceived threat varies, it could be waking up early or being busy in the next few days, but the common point is jumping to conclusions and underestimating our ability to cope." He believes that for most people, Sunday anxiety is uncomfortable, but it is actually controllable and can be controlled well.

Of course, in fact, Sunday itself is busier than before. A tracking analysis of Canadians' time use from 1981 to 2005 found that compared with the early 1980s, Sunday is more busy than before and more like a workday. People are busy with part-time jobs, housework, shopping and taking care of children. Although weekends are used for rest and recuperation, they are actually just as busy as working. Without a good weekend to relax, it is natural to be full of anxiety and fear about Monday.

How to deal with Sunday anxiety?

These few tips will keep you alive

Regular Sunday anxiety can make people feel like they are stuck in a vortex. Monday will always come, but if you take positive steps to reduce Sunday stress, you can make you more adaptable to the transition from weekend to weekday. The following seven tips can help you alleviate Sunday anxiety.

1. Do what you love on Sunday

Take a nice hot bath, drink your favorite milk tea, distract yourself with your favorite things; cook a new dish, read a new book, watch a new movie, try new things to keep yourself excited. Do things you love so that at the end of Sunday, you will feel emotionally full.

It will be more effective if you turn some activities into a daily routine or a habit, such as silencing your phone on Sunday afternoons, going out for a walk, and then taking a hot bath when you get home.

2. Don’t be idle, it’s better to move

Finally got some rest, but you want to stay at home forever? It might be better to stay active. Take some time to exercise, whether it's hiking or walking. After exercise, it will be easier to fall asleep. You don't have to do a hardcore exercise right away, just give yourself a big thumbs up if you can stick to it for 30 minutes!

3. Assess your emotions

Sundays are the easiest time to feel overwhelmed by emotions, so it’s best to find a time during the day to check in with your emotions, try to determine what exactly is filling you with fear, and use activities such as journaling and meditation to seek inner peace.

4. Plan, plan, plan

When facing Sunday anxiety, making a plan can help you take the initiative. You can write down what you need to accomplish over the weekend and what you need to do next week on Friday afternoon, make a to-do list, and review and manage your workload. Review the list on Sunday night to see what you have done and what needs to be done.

The brain will constantly remind you of things you haven't done, such as unanswered emails and unfinished documents. This is a Zeigarnik effect, which increases people's stress and anxiety. Once you write down these unfinished things, your brain can relax a little and stop sending alarms.

In addition, you can also prepare the clothes you will wear the next day and think about what to eat for lunch on weekdays. As long as you plan early enough, anxiety will not catch up with you.

5. Important: Don’t take your phone to bed!

Sunday is so stressful, why not check Weibo or TikTok to relieve the anxiety? Playing with your phone can distract your attention, but accidentally playing until 2 a.m. will directly make Monday a mess. So don't take your phone to bed on Sunday night, keep your eyes away from the screen, and even consider going to bed earlier than usual on Sunday night to spend more time relaxing.

6. Talk about your anxieties

Don't worry about it yourself, talk to your friends and family, talk about your feelings, and relieve tension. If you are really embarrassed to talk, just chat, it is easy to divert your attention and relax.

7. Monday is a reward day

Since Monday is the most difficult day of the week, try to turn Monday into a "reward day." For example, if you are a fitness enthusiast, you can choose to "legally" eat desserts and snacks on Monday night, and if you like to drink, have a glass of wine. With something to look forward to, Monday will become less difficult.

Art Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, also suggests that you can think of work as a "reward." When you feel that your job is to avoid bad things from happening - avoid your boss's anger, avoid disappointing your customers, avoid missing things, your motivation is avoidance motivation, and this motivation will make people anxious.

If you view your work as "making good things happen" - making customers happy and creating value for the world, your motivation is approach motivation, which makes you feel meaningful and satisfied.

References

[1]The Sunday Scaries hit different in a pandemic. Here's how to help ease them.

https://mashable.com/article/how-to-help-stop-sunday-scaries/

[2] The Sunday Scaries hit different in a pandemic. Here's how to help ease them.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/02/sunday-scaries-anxiety-workweek/606289/

[3] “How to deal with Sunday anxiety” http://health.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0201/c14739-32018592.html

[4]Markman, A. (2020). Got the Sunday Scaries? Here's a science-backed way to cure them. https://www.fastcompany.com/90476095/got-the-sunday-scaries-heres-a-science-backed-way-to-cure-them

Author: Small Towel

Editor: You Shiyou