07 avril 2023
It is a phenomenon well known to people in activity, adults but also adolescents: the Sunday evening blues, which results in a feeling of depression and anxiety, which prevents you from enjoying the present moment. British researchers have sought to establish the causes.
The days are getting longer, the birds are singing, the trees are budding… But nothing can be done, every Sunday evening it’s the same thing: a diffuse feeling of anxiety and tension takes hold of you and lowers your morale to the thirty-sixth below. And sometimes, it starts as early as Sunday noon… This state has a name, the Sunday evening blues, and it is fairly well shared. Both among adults who go back to work on Monday morning, and among teenagers who return to college or high school.
For the majority of us, Sunday announces the end of the weekend, synonymous with leisure and rest, and the return to school or professional activities, which present more constraints. How can we ensure that their anticipation does not take up all the space and waste part of our free time? This is the question posed by researchers at the British University of Exeter, by interviewing more than 650 people recruited via the Internet.
Logout and to-do list
Receiving emails over the weekend, unfinished work from the previous week, and self-pressure to perform are some of the most common triggers cited by interviewees. more in-depth. To which must be added the blurring of the boundary between private and professional lives, which has intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic. “and which has an impact on our well-being”explains one of the authors of the survey.
To combat the Sunday night blues, the researchers advise managers, for example, to check in on their teams on Fridays, to organize “positive interactions” on Mondays, and to employees to complete their “to-do list” on Fridays. , so as to attack more serenely the following week, without having to think about it during the weekend. Keeping the same rhythm as the rest of the week, relaxing or, on the contrary, occupying the mind are other strategies that can be implemented to take full advantage of your Sundays.