How to Combat the Sunday Scaries

It’s 6 o’clock in the afternoon on a Sunday, and you start getting that familiar, looming sense of dread that approaches you on a weekly basis. This feeling is none other than the “Sunday Scaries”, a rather newly-developed slang that is used to describe the anticipatory anxiety one would feel before the start of a new week, most often associated with the obligation to go to work, and contrary to what you may think, this feeling actually isn’t exclusive to those who don’t love their jobs.

While the Sunday Scaries may sound dramatic to some, it is actually our bodies’ nervous system reacting to a perceived threat and the anticipated loss of control over our own lives. The aforementioned threat comes in the form of deadlines, responsibilities and societal pressure, all of which our brains have decided are much bigger threats than they actually really are.

To fight it off, firstly, it is recommended to try and prioritize comfort over productivity. Put some music on, light the candle you just got as a Christmas gift a while ago, and get cozy under your blanket. Sunday evenings are for you to slow down, not for you to get geared up for hustling. The unavoidable transition into yet another week will become less overwhelming once you allow your nervous system the space for it to settle down.

While it’s easy to lay in bed to unwind with the hopes of staying relaxed, it’s not so easy to prevent your thoughts from spiralling. The Sunday Scaries often stems from the worries and anticipations that our brains overestimate the importance of. Limit yourself from exposure to work-related stressors or overstimulating content which may trigger feelings of stress. When you constantly check work emails and messages, you will feel even more dread for the upcoming week. Choose low-stimulation activities that help to preserve your mental state like reading or doing yoga.

Although it feels rough to do chores after you get home from work, we still encourage you to do so, as having them piled up to be completed at the end of the week will leave less time for you to relax, which brings us to our final piece of advice for this post. Develop a consistent Sunday night routine which includes low-stimulation activities like we mentioned earlier. The weekly repetition will teach your brain to associate Sundays with rest instead of anxiety, and as time goes by, the sense of predictability that your brain has learned will make the start of the upcoming week more bearable and lighten the weight of Sundays.

The Sunday Scaries are more common than you think, and is quite possibly a universal feeling that everyone’s experienced at some point in their lives, so don’t feel as if you’re being overly dramatic about it, because it could very well affect your performance and mood for the rest of the week, and this, in turn, could possibly lead to depression down the line. Hence, acknowledging them for what they are is the first step in combating them effectively, so we hope you'll take it easy on Sundays and that this post has helped you in some way.