# The Sunday Scaries. Did you have them?



## Camper6 (Feb 17, 2020)

When I was working I dreaded Sunday nights. I still do. I copied this from The Atlantic. I didn't realize it was common.
.............

The not-exactly-clinical diagnosis for this late-weekend malaise is the _Sunday scaries_, a term that has risen to prominence in the past decade or so. It is not altogether surprising that the transition from weekend to workweek is, and likely has always been, unpleasant. But despite the fact that the contours of the standard workweek haven’t changed for the better part of a century, there is something distinctly modern about the queasiness so many people feel on Sunday nights about returning to the grind of work or school.

Regardless of whether people call this experience the Sunday scaries (_Sunday evening feeling_ and _Sunday syndrome_ are two alternatives), a lot of them undergo some variation of it. A 2018 survey commissioned by LinkedIn found that 80 percent of working American adults worry about the upcoming workweek on Sundays. Another survey by a home-goods brand found that the Sunday scaries’ average time of arrival is 3:58 p.m., though they seem to set in later than that for many people. (A cousin of the Sunday scaries is the returning-from-vacation scaries, which can fall on any day of the week.)


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## Butterfly (Feb 17, 2020)

Yeah, I had these a lot, though I called them the Monday dreads.  One of the reasons was that I never knew what was going to hit the fan on Monday -- both my boss and (I theorized) most of our clients, would sit around on the weekends and get all wound up about one thing or another, and it would all land in my face or on my desk on Mondays, seemingly out of nowhere.

Now that I am retired, I still do not like Mondays and avoid scheduling anything for Mondays if I can avoid it.


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## hollydolly (Feb 17, 2020)

I didn't hate Mondays particularly when I was working  because for the last more than 20 years of my working life I was the Boss, and often I'd work on Saturdays and have monday off...  

However I hated Mondays as a child at school.. . I think it would be the stress of my mother trying to get all of us kids bathed and clothes ready  the night before  and  all the time the old man's abuse towards us , and the worry also that our homework might be not good enough for teacher or it wasn't done ,   or we dreaded a school bully ,   or any amount of reasons, but  always dreaded going on Mondays...


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## jujube (Feb 17, 2020)

Oh, yes, I started the Sunday Evening Blues in most of my jobs, especially when I was selling advertising for a large metro daily newspaper.

Because of the strong union presence at the newspaper, there was very little individual accountability in the composing department.  We didn't have a union so if we screwed up on the ad, we took it in the neck individually.  A composer screwed up, it got charged to the department and nobody particularly cared.  They all had what was essentially "jobs for life" and their professionalism reflected that.

If one of my customers had a great big expensive ad in the Sunday paper and it got messed up (or even left out altogether) who do you think heard about it at 8:00 a.m. Monday?  Me, who could always be reached or the composing department, who did not  deal directly with the public.  Yep, you know the answer.  The customer didn't care WHO was at fault......he just wanted to extract a pound of flesh from _somebody_.

So, yeah, I had the Sunday Night Blues.


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## Floridatennisplayer (Feb 17, 2020)

Had the Sunday Night Blues from the 4th grade until last year when I retired!

Lots of my friends had the same.


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## Aunt Bea (Feb 17, 2020)

Me too!

I've also heard that Sunday evening through Monday morning is prime time for heart attacks.


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## SeaBreeze (Feb 17, 2020)

I never like Sundays when I went to school or throughout my working life, it was always a day that I didn't enjoy and dreaded the next day.  Now that I'm retired, I still don't like Sundays, just a bad feel for me.  But Mondays I look forward to, and pretty much every other day of the week.


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## Marie5656 (Feb 17, 2020)

*I am not sure if this is pertinent to OP, but here is my story. Yes, I dreaded Sundays when I worked.  Having to go back to work and all.
But now, my issue comes the evening before I have a morning appointment of some sort. I find I cannot get to sleep, or sleep well. Usually it is because I am afraid I will oversleep, even though I will set an alarm to get me up in time.  I always double and triple check to make sure I set the alarm for the right time, or for AM and not PM.*


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## Floridatennisplayer (Feb 17, 2020)

Marie, me too!!!!


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## jerry old (Feb 17, 2020)

all the same uh?  always thought everyone felt the same, post tend to agree, except Sea, which I don't quite follow.
all that freedom to lay in bed Sat. morning.  I am free, no one can nag on me today.  ah! freedom


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## Ken N Tx (Feb 18, 2020)

Aunt Bea said:


> Me too!
> 
> I've also heard that Sunday evening through Monday morning is prime time for heart attacks.


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## DaveA (Feb 18, 2020)

Not particularly.  It was "back to work" and it varied depending on the time of the year.  Winters were spent mostly in the office where there was a "sameness" to most days.  Come the good weather and construction season it was back out to whatever highway project I was assigned and then there were bad and good days.  Monday could sometimes be one of the bad ones.


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## StarSong (Feb 18, 2020)

The hardest part of Mondays and the rest of the school or work week, was that the early hours were counter to my night owl circadian rhythm.  It was very hard for me to wake up.  

When my kids were in elementary school I started working mostly from home (for our own business) and could orchestrate my hours 90% of the time.  If I couldn't fall/stay asleep, rather than torturing myself over it I'd go to my office and work for a while in the wee hours of the morning.  If necessary, I'd catch a nap the next day.  

No more dread of the M-F workweek.

In yet another of life's cruel ironies, now that I have no need to get out of bed before 9:00 am, I can rarely sleep past 5:00.


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## Liberty (Feb 18, 2020)

StarSong said:


> The hardest part of Mondays and the rest of the school or work week, was that the early hours were counter to my night owl circadian rhythm.  It was very hard for me to wake up.
> 
> When my kids were in elementary school I started working mostly from home (for our own business) and could orchestrate my hours 90% of the time.  If I couldn't fall/stay asleep, rather than torturing myself over it I'd go to my office and work for a while in the wee hours of the morning.  If necessary, I'd catch a nap the next day.
> 
> ...


Star, too funny reading your post.  When we owned the company we sold 3 years ago, it was the commute that used to get me, we often got up very early - like 5 am to commute to work.  Then I was always an early riser.  Now that we're retired, I turned in to a night owl...it was like feeling rich or something to be able to actually "stay up late"...maybe like a kid!


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## katlupe (Feb 18, 2020)

No, I didn't get the Sunday scaries. Maybe due to the fact that I didn't work in those type of jobs. I worked as a bartender and usually had Mondays off but I went to job later in early evenings so I basically had the whole day. Later on I was a stay at home mother and my husband owned his own business so I didn't have to worry about it then either. The last part of my working life was working as a CNA (certified nursing assistant) and I worked every other week-end. I was always eager to get back to work after my time off to check on my group of residents. 

As far as days of the week go, now every day seems like Saturday.......almost. Monday was always my favorite day and still is. A new week with new possibilities.


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## RadishRose (Feb 18, 2020)

Yes, but only during my school years. I hated school.


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## Lc jones (Feb 18, 2020)

I remember that feeling, I don’t have it any longer! I now watch people going to work driving their cars while I’m sitting by my pool having my morning coffee.... Hopefully one day they’ll have a chance to experience the retirement that I am now experiencing.


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## Gardenlover (Feb 18, 2020)

When I was in grade school I called it "The Feeling." 

My dad suffered from this as well, many times ruining his Sunday worrying about Monday.


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## fmdog44 (Feb 18, 2020)

Yes, being a party guy back when Sunday evening was not pleasant. In high school we all met in the diner across the street from the school in the morning and on too many occasions we decided Monday was a holiday so we jumped in our cars and goofed off all day doing whatever. I loved doing that back then.


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## Linda (Feb 18, 2020)

I dreaded school a lot more than I ever dreaded work.  For the most part I liked working but my youngest kids were in their late teens.  I didn't work while they were young.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Feb 18, 2020)

RadishRose said:


> Yes, but only during my school years. I hated school.


I feel the same way as RadishRose.  Never had that problem when I worked. I liked my job and worked many weekends, one day was like another.


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## Fyrefox (Feb 19, 2020)

When the working environment at my place of employment had deteriorated profoundly going beyond hostile to actively toxic, I did indeed experience the Sunday Scaries.  I would envy my cats as I left for work, realizing that they had a better life than I did...


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## Gary O' (Feb 19, 2020)

Marie5656 said:


> I find I cannot get to sleep, or sleep well. Usually it is because I am afraid I will oversleep, even though I will set an alarm to get me up in time. I always double and triple check to make sure I set the alarm for the right time, or for AM and not PM.


I used two alarms
Slept like a dawg
Went to bed early, thinking about the next day's tasks/issues

Hated Sunday afternoons
No time left to start/finish a project


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## Meanderer (Feb 19, 2020)

Relax, Ned.....


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## HazyDavey (Feb 19, 2020)

Butterfly said:


> Now that I am retired, I still do not like Mondays and avoid scheduling anything for Mondays if I can avoid it.



I'm the same, Mondays still have bluesy feel to them.


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## Gary O' (Feb 19, 2020)

HazyDavey said:


> I'm the same, Mondays still have bluesy feel to them.


They're our shopping days
Not too many out
Great parking
In
Out

My problem now.....not sure what day it is
But the garbage man sets me straight


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## Meanderer (Feb 19, 2020)

As we begin our 13th year of retirement, our weeks are comprised of six Saturdays and one Sunday.  We love Sundays!  We shop on the second Saturday of the week.


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## StarSong (Feb 19, 2020)

Gary O' said:


> They're our shopping days
> Not too many out
> Great parking
> In
> Out



For those same reasons we do most of our shopping and errands M-F from 9-2.  Working hours and kids are still in school.    

I also plan that way as a kindness to members of the workaday world. They have little choice about when they can run those same errands, but my schedule is usually w-i-d-e open.


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## Ronni (Feb 19, 2020)

I don't mind Mondays.  It helps that I'm self-employed so my work week is structured the way I want it to be, and my work's always different, and I really like my clients, so I don't dread the beginning of the work week.  

And I know I sound like I'm contradicting myself here, but I'm not....what I DO dread is the end of the weekend!!!  Not because I hate work, but just because it's the end of my free weekend time, the time when I get to do the stuff that I want to do, the stuff around the house, the forward progress on the renovations we're working on, the time when I get caught up on personal stuff.  

I envy those of you for whom every day is a weekend day.


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## Camper6 (Feb 19, 2020)

Work means having to meet deadlines.  

That's the bad news.

The good news?  Payday.


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## HazyDavey (Feb 19, 2020)

Gary O' said:


> They're our shopping days
> Not too many out
> Great parking
> In
> Out



We do the same thing Gary, Monday mornings is our usual shopping day. Tuesday, if Monday is filled with an appointment or something.


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## Gary O' (Feb 19, 2020)

HazyDavey said:


> We do the same thing Gary, Monday mornings is our usual shopping day. Tuesday, if Monday is filled with an appointment or something.


Yeah, those seem the least busy days

But I really like Starry's thoughtfulness, too;



StarSong said:


> For those same reasons we do most of our shopping and errands M-F from 9-2. Working hours and kids are still in school.
> 
> I also plan that way as a kindness to members of the workaday world. They have little choice about when they can run those same errands, but my schedule is usually w-i-d-e open.


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## oldman (Feb 19, 2020)

After 18 years of flying for United, I pretty well had it made to pick my choice of days that I wanted to work, if you call flying work, that is. I enjoyed flying Mon-Fri, but when I flew the Chicago-Hawaii route, I liked flying the weekends because a lot of vacationers would leave to fly to Hawaii on those days and I really liked having a plane full of happy people. Never even knew what it was to dread Mondays.  Any day that I got to fly was a good day.


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## Getyoung (Feb 19, 2020)

I also hated Sunday, especially evenings when I was younger and had school the next day, never liked school. And when I was working I dreaded Sunday evening again because the "grind" would start the next day. The commute, the worked up customers over the weekend, the Monday morning scrums / meetings, the long work week ahead.
It took awhile after I retired for my subconscious to realize that I didn't have to go to work. I always had a crappy sleep Sunday night. It is still not the greatest sleep even after 3 years.

I love retirement, I almost feel giddy not having to get up early and head to the office.


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## C'est Moi (Feb 19, 2020)

I wouldn't call it "scaries," more of a letdown since Monday was looming as the weekend ticked away.


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## Liberty (Feb 20, 2020)

Liked to watch Alfred Hitchock on Sunday nights...that gave me the "willies".


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## Catlady (Feb 22, 2020)

In my case, I worked third shift, my week ended on Friday morning and on Sunday about 1pm I had to go to sleep so I could be up about 9pm and be at work at 10pm.  Good thing I am a good sleeper, that change twice a week of my circadian rhythm was tiring.  I was so happy to retire and have a  normal sleep cycle.


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## Liberty (Feb 22, 2020)

Catlady said:


> In my case, I worked third shift, my week ended on Friday morning and on Sunday about 1pm I had to go to sleep so I could be up about 9pm and be at work at 10pm.  Good thing I am a good sleeper, that change twice a week of my circadian rhythm was tiring.  I was so happy to retire and have a  normal sleep cycle.


Wow, 3rd shift...what did you do for a living Cat?


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## Catlady (Feb 22, 2020)

Liberty said:


> Wow, 3rd shift...what did you do for a living Cat?


Payments processing for an electric utility company, including the last minute payers who dropped it off at collection stations, had to be processed by morning so that they wouldn't be shut off.  (The company got rid of tellers to save money).


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## terry123 (Feb 22, 2020)

I didn't like Sundays either because of the Monday start of the week.  A lot of times I worked all weekend when it was end of the month.  Needed the time to get monthly statements out and monitor the General Ledger report.


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## Camper6 (Feb 22, 2020)

So now what's everyone's favorite day?
Give me Saturday anytime.
My father in law used to say the English know what Saturday nights are for.


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## Pinky (Feb 26, 2020)

I always looked forward to getting back to work on Mondays -- having 3 close friends working with me, helped a lot, and most of the other co-workers were pleasant. So .. no Sunday Scaries for me!


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## OneEyedDiva (Feb 29, 2020)

I remember having the Monday Blues but not the Sunday Scaries.


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