How to Beat the Sunday Scaries
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Ugh, we all know the Sunday Scaries. It’s that existential dread you feel on a Sunday night (or more often, Sunday afternoon) about the weekend being over. There has to be a way to prevent them, right?
The solution isn’t working through the weekend, of course. And this isn’t a conversation about whether you should look for a new job. Even people who like their jobs can get the Sunday scaries.
Instead, the failproof strategy that sets up for success in not experiencing them is simple: don’t drink on Saturday night.
Yes, it’s that easy. Abstaining takes the edge off enough to make Sunday not just tolerable, but actually enjoyable.
When you drink on Saturday night, it does two things that will automatically make you feel worse on Sunday:
1. Meh Sleep.
Alcohol can disrupt your sleep cycle (too much and/or too close to bedtime), leading to less REM cycles and deep sleep. Your heart rate will be higher. Plus you wake up to pee and can have a difficult time falling back to sleep.
We all know that when you sleep terribly, you just feel yucky. You’re automatically putting yourself at a disadvantage.
2. Anxiety.
Your anxiety is on overdrive with alcohol in your system, even if you’re not stressed about anything in particular.
Alcohol is a depressant, and even moderate amounts can lead to mood swings and a sense of sadness or emptiness. See, the chemicals your brain produces get thrown off when you drink – extra uppers to counteract alcohol’s depressant effect remains the day after.
That leads to that extra anxiety, even when you don’t have a hangover. From my experience, it can take up to 10 days for this balance to be fully restored.
To reiterate that point, to maximize these effects, I’d suggest trying a longer break from alcohol (read about my experience giving it up for 90 days here). Since alcohol messes with your brain chemistry, even after its physical effects wear off, it takes longer for these chemicals to regulate and your mood to level out entirely. I have found that the benefit is really noticeable after 10 days.
But even if you don’t take a break from alcohol, you can still benefit from just abstaining on Saturday night.
In addition to the improved mood/lessened anxiety, if you don’t drink on Saturday, you will have an additional benefit that will further reduce your stress about entering a new work week:
3. Increased productivity.
Hangovers can make you feel sluggish and less motivated, making it harder to accomplish tasks on Sunday. Not drinking on Saturday night can lead to a more productive and efficient day.
Let’s say it’s Sunday morning, and you did drink last night. Even if it wasn’t a lot, as you get older, the hangovers get worse (even from 2 glasses of wine!). I suspect you know exactly what I mean.
Imagine instead what it’s like to have a full Sunday to go for a long walk on a summer morning and stop at a farmers’ market to pick up breakfast, all before 9 or 10 AM, which is when you’d be rolling out of bed with a headache.
Added bonus: if you’re a Sunday/Monday grocery shopper, replacing that time with early on a Sunday morning, you beat the crowds. It is so much better than fighting a crowd of people with carts.
Imagine spending that afternoon/evening meeting a friend for lunch you never see, finishing a book, or finally trying to learn Italian?
Or getting your place clean and doing meal prep?
How much better do you feel when you go into the work week organized as opposed to having cleaning and grocery shopping hanging over your head when you get home from work on Monday? Anything to make Mondays better is something you should try. (Not to mention making Sundays less anxious.)
Finally, to link the reduced anxiety and increased productivity, there’s another thing that underscores both. For me, this makes a huge difference to my Sunday (and starts the week off on the right note), so I want to mention it specifically.
4. Sunday Morning Workout.
When is the last time you worked out on a Sunday morning? If you regularly do, that’s great! If, however, it seems like too much to shoot for, try it once or twice. You’ll see that it makes a difference in your mood and your week and probably aim to do it more often.
Your workout is better when you’re rested, it further reduces anxiety and improves mood, and it makes you feel just overall great. Plus, it’s productive.
Often there are also fitness class slots you might not be able to make during the week. Or maybe those same classes book up during the week. I’ve seen more availability in the first Sunday morning classes than the rest of the day or any Saturday classes.
This is the perfect time to try a new class that’s been on your list. You don’t have to rush to get ready for work, and you likely won’t be fighting for mirror space.
If you have a goal to work out X days per week, you’re already ahead of the curve when you knock one out on Sunday. Plus you go into your week feeling ahead of much of the population who is hungover or sleeping in.
Even better if you follow this up with a healthy breakfast/brunch. Yes, you should still go out and enjoy brunch if you’d like! Just avoid the bottomless mimosas.
Let me repeat that – it is best to not get day drunk on Sunday afternoon!
Because as important as it is to not drink on Saturday night, it is also VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO DRINK ON SUNDAY. This will just make Monday bad and really throw your week off.
What do you have to lose? Try not drinking this Saturday and see if it makes a difference. You might notice you enjoy your new Sundays enough to make not having wine at dinner on Saturday night worth it!
If you want to give your liver an added health boost, sign up for my free 3 day liver reset, complete with recipes that helped me recover from two liver viruses that almost killed me!
