Reasons Behind the Sunday Blues (and How You Can Fix It)

If Sunday evenings frequently lull you into a funk of anxiety and dread about the coming week, you're far from alone. According to a 2015 poll from Monster.com, 76% of Americans experience "really bad" Sunday night doldrums, compared with 45% of respondents worldwide.1

In the years since this polling data was released, more and more psychologists, therapists, and life coaches have looked at new ways to eliminate Sunday night blues and prevent individuals from sliding down a slope into chronic depression or anxiety.

It's relatively straightforward to understand why individuals, particularly Americans, may feel anxiety as they face a new workweek and its stresses. After all, most of us work 9-5 jobs, and many have children in school. These responsibilities require intense focus and attention — from packing school lunches and overseeing homework to overflowing email in-boxes and daily commutes.

Sundays don't have to be a day of dread, however. By following some or all of the tips below, you can restore your entire two-day weekend and enjoy anxiety-free Sunday nights that seamlessly lead into your workweek.

One of the reasons we experience the Sunday night blues relates to how we tend to schedule our weekend activities. Do you, like many people, make your most exciting plans on Saturdays? If so, one way to eliminate the Sunday blues is to try switching things up a bit.

If we spend Friday night and Saturday doing all of the "fun" stuff, we're automatically relegating Sunday as a day of chores and preparation for the week. By flipping this schedule around, you'll experience a completely different — and more balanced — weekend.

Consider doing most of your necessary weekend chores on Saturdays, or at least splitting them between Saturday and Sunday. By spreading around these responsibilities, you won't feel overwhelmed and anxious on Sunday evenings. Some of the typical Sunday tasks that you can move to Saturday include:

By "thinking ahead," we don't mean the anxious, swirling thoughts of what awaits you at your desk on Sunday night, but rather, thinking further ahead. Think ahead on Friday evenings before you leave your office for the weekend.

It may be tempting to rush out of the office at 5:00 on Friday, leaving those unanswered emails and job tasks looming, but it only sets you up for stress down the line. In reality, if you make a plan and prepare yourself for Monday before you leave your desk on Friday, you're going to have a lot less stress on Sunday night.

Before leaving work, ensure that your workspace is ready and set up for Monday morning. Have your Monday tasks already lined up and organized so that you don't feel you have to scramble to get back into the game. Some of the tasks you can do on Friday to ensure a peaceful return to work the following week include:

• Tag emails that need attention on Monday morning
• Create a specific to-do list for Monday tasks
• Avoid scheduling Monday-morning meetings, if possible
• Set up your work project(s) so that you're ready to go on Monday

Organization can be challenging for many of us, but one ounce of organization equals a pound of stress relief. Organizing your time better — both at work and home — significantly impacts mental health and gives us room to breathe, knowing our exact action plan on Monday morning.

Having a regular social ritual on Sundays can significantly reduce stress and anxiety. Many of us tend to let Sunday turn into a day of Netflix binging in our pajamas. But recent studies have shown that social isolation can majorly impact mental health, leading to depression and anxiety.3 Many of us know this to be accurate based on the past few years of pandemic-based quarantines and shutdowns.

Below, we’ll look at a few options for incorporating socialization into your Sundays.

As noted above, allowing Sunday nights to turn into Netflix binge sessions can be tempting, but active leisure activities are always healthier than passive ones. They engage your mind and enable you to live in the moment, where ruminating thoughts don't persist.

Having a family board game night on Sundays will provide you with far more social interaction and connection than zoning out in front of the television. Hosting a book club meeting at your house or gathering with friends at a local diner are other options if you don't have children. Even a Sunday evening walk in nature can help you focus on the natural beauty around you and remind you that you're far from the cubicle you once spent Sundays dreading.