Sunday scaries: 12 ways to beat Sunday night dread at work

You probably know the feeling: It's late on Sunday afternoon, and you're wrapping up your weekend fun. Suddenly, a sense of dread creeps in, and intrusive thoughts about your Monday meetings and upcoming to-dos overshadow the remaining hours of your weekend.

You're experiencing the "Sunday scaries," a widely recognized phenomenon characterized by a feeling of dread that sets in the night before you return to work or school. In addition to ruining your Sunday night, the Sunday scaries also go hand in hand with work-related challenges like burnout and imposter syndrome.

If the Sunday scaries are cutting into your weekend, don't worry. We're here to help. Read on to learn more about what causes your sense of Sunday-night dread, how it affects your health, and how to put the "fun" back into "Sunday Funday."

What are the Sunday scaries?

The Sunday scaries are a form of anticipatory anxiety characterized by feelings of dread or unease on Sunday evening before returning to work on Monday. You might recognize them as the pit in your stomach that forms as the weekend winds down and the workweek closes in.

If you suffer from the Sunday scaries, you're not alone. While not a recognized clinical diagnosis, the Sunday scaries are a widely acknowledged phenomenon, especially for members of the Gen Z and Millennial generations. In fact, a recent study from LinkedIn found that 66% of Americans suffer from Sunday night anxiety.

Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't helped, with 41% of respondents saying it has either caused their Sunday scaries or made them worse.

So, is there a cure for the Sunday scaries? You'll be happy to hear that there are ways to lessen your end-of-the-weekend anxiety. First, let's look at the symptoms and common causes of Sunday night dread.

The Sunday scaries don't always happen on Sunday. Depending on your schedule, the Sunday scaries can pop up any time. For example, if your work week starts on Wednesday, you might experience the Sunday scaries on Tuesday night.

What are the symptoms of the Sunday scaries?

The Sunday scaries manifest in a number of physical and mental symptoms. As the clock ticks closer to the end of Sunday night and the countdown to Monday morning begins, you may notice yourself feeling different anxiety symptoms, including:

• A sense of dread or doom

• Resentment or anger

• An upset stomach

• Difficulty sleeping

• Headaches

• Restlessness

• Irritability

• A sense of unease

• Intrusive and unwanted thoughts about the upcoming week that you can't shake

Doesn't sound like a very good way to spend your Sunday night, does it? We don't think so either. Luckily, understanding the causes of the Sunday scaries can help you narrow down why you're feeling so much dread, and what to do about it.

What causes the Sunday scaries?

Typically, the end of the weekend and the knowledge that our return to school or work is fast approaching trigger the Sunday scaries. But often, the cause isn't as simple as not wanting the weekend to end. A number of complex factors that play into our overall mental health and well-being can cause Sunday-night anxiety, including:

• Declining mental health due to overwork or burnout

• Lingering effects of a toxic work culture or a poor work environment

• Feeling unprepared for tasks you have to complete in the next week

• Worrying about unfinished tasks from the previous week

• Struggling with imposter syndrome (feelings of self-doubt or inadequacy around work accomplishments)

• Feeling like you have to sacrifice your free time and well-being for work, which results in a poor work-life balance

• Dealing with project scope creep and underscoped tasks that lead to weekend work

Love your job but still hate Sunday night? That's normal. Often, the Sunday scaries have more to do with the factors that play into your overall health and well-being than if you like the work you do. If you're happy at work but still get stressed on Sunday night, read on for tips and tricks to keep your scaries at bay.

The science behind Sunday scaries

The Sunday scaries are rooted in anticipatory anxiety, the fear or worry you experience before an event occurs. Your brain perceives the upcoming workweek as a potential threat, triggering your body's stress response even though nothing stressful has actually happened yet.

When anticipatory anxiety kicks in, your body releases cortisol and adrenaline, the same hormones that activate during a "fight or flight" response. This explains why the Sunday scaries can feel so physical:

• Racing heart: Your body prepares for perceived danger

• Tense muscles: Physical stress response activates

• Difficulty relaxing: Your mind stays on high alert

Research also suggests that the transition from weekend to workweek disrupts your sense of autonomy. During the weekend, you control your time. As Sunday evening approaches, you're mentally shifting back to a structured environment where others may dictate your schedule, and that loss of control can heighten anxiety.

Understanding the science behind your Sunday dread can help you approach it with more self-compassion. Your feelings are a normal response to stress, not a personal failing.

Are the Sunday scaries generational?

A surprising factor in whether you experience the Sunday scaries is your generation. LinkedIn's recent study found that the youngest professionals are the most likely to experience Sunday night dread, with 78% of Millennials and Gen Z saying they experience anxiety before the start of their week.

There are a few reasons younger generations may be more likely to feel anxious as their weekend comes to a close, including:

• The "always-on," hyper-connected modern workplace continues to affect worker wellbeing, with Google searches for "Sunday Scaries" up 84 per cent year-on-year in 2025, reflecting growing anxiety about work-life boundaries.

• The increase in dual-career households, a major shift over the last several decades that changed the division of household labor and led to increased responsibilities on nights and weekends, further impacts work-life balance.

• The rise of "hustle culture" among younger generations and the increase in side gigs, which led to less free time outside of work.

How Sunday scaries affect your mental and physical health

The Sunday scaries aren't just an emotional experience. They can take a real toll on your body and mind, disrupting your evening and setting you up for a rough start to the week.

Research shows that the stress response triggered by Sunday dread can manifest in several ways:

• Sleep disruption, including difficulty falling asleep and restless nights

• Increased heart rate and elevated cortisol levels

• Digestive issues like nausea or stomach discomfort

• Tension headaches and muscle tightness

• Fatigue that carries into Monday morning

Beyond the physical symptoms, chronic Sunday scaries can contribute to longer-term mental health challenges. Weekly cycles of dread erode your overall well-being and contribute to burnout, creating a cycle that's difficult to break without intentional intervention.

Understanding these impacts is the first step toward addressing them. The good news is that with the right strategies, you can reduce both the mental and physical effects of Sunday-night anxiety.

12 tips to combat the Sunday scaries

If you're struggling with the Sunday scaries, we're here to help. While the dread that fills your Sunday nights can feel overwhelming, there are several actions you can take to reduce or even eliminate the fear that takes hold on Sunday evenings.

Remember, you're not alone in this. The Sunday scaries are a valid feeling of anticipatory anxiety that many people, including your colleagues, struggle with. By identifying the cause of your anxiety and prioritizing your well-being, you can overcome Sunday night dread.

1. Determine the cause of your Sunday scaries

Without a clear root cause, the Sunday scaries can feel insurmountable. One moment you're enjoying your weekend, and the next you're hit with a feeling of impending doom or unease that you just can't shake.

Instead of writing off this sense of dread as a natural reaction to the end of the weekend, focus on what might be causing the feeling. Ask yourself: is there anything at work you feel unprepared for? Are you happy in your role, or are you feeling stagnant?

Determining the specific source of your Sunday-night dread is the first step to overcoming it. Once you have a better idea of what might be causing your feelings, you can brainstorm steps to fix the origin, like prioritizing your most important work to increase your productivity and reduce missed deadlines.

2. Try anxiety-coping techniques

The Sunday scaries are both a work and a well-being challenge. Since the Sunday blues manifest in feelings akin to anxiety, using anxiety-management and relaxation techniques can help you manage your levels of Sunday-related stress. Try coping strategies like:

• Practicing mindfulness and gratitude

• Using deep breathing exercises

• Keeping a work journal to provide awareness around complicated work situations

• Taking a long walk or meditating

• Using visualization techniques or reciting positive affirmations

Of course, these are short-term strategies that will help control your feelings of Sunday-night anxiety in the moment. To curb these feelings long-term, focus on actionable changes you can make to your work routine.

3. Create a relaxing Sunday

Since the Sunday scaries lead to increased stress, one of the best ways to combat them is to prioritize a stress-free Sunday night. Even though it's tempting, try not to push all of your weekend responsibilities, like household chores or grocery shopping, to Sunday. Instead, knock out your essential weekend to-dos on Friday evening or Saturday morning to give yourself space to breathe and relax on Sunday.

You can also incorporate a relaxing routine into your Sunday night. Creating a routine will help you wind down, reducing the stress you'd otherwise feel about the upcoming week. Try adding stress-management techniques to your routine, like reading a book before bed, taking a warm bath, or meditating.

4. Plan something fun on Monday

Planning something fun for Monday can make the start of the week less intimidating. Give yourself something to look forward to:

• Small treats: Grab a favorite coffee or cook a meal you love

• Relaxing activities: Take a walk, do yoga, or watch a favorite show

• Social plans: Schedule a standing happy hour or dinner with a friend

• Morning rituals: Create a productive morning routine to start fresh and energized

5. Prioritize your work-life balance

As you may have guessed from our first few tips, prioritizing your work-life balance is key to curbing the Sunday scaries. And while making time for yourself is an important part of developing a successful work-life balance, it will take more than a few bubble baths.

Truly prioritizing your work-life balance means reframing how you think about work and what it takes to succeed. According to the Anatomy of Work Index, 40% of all workers think burnout is an inevitable part of success.

While these feelings are understandable, the inability to set and stick to boundaries erodes your well-being. If you're struggling with your work-life balance, start by communicating your needs to your manager. Then, try strategies like:

• Setting clear boundaries around when you're online

• Reducing the number of work activities you do outside the office

• Learning how to say no if you're overscheduled

Anatomy of Work Special Report: The unexplored link between impostor syndrome and burnout

Burnout and impostor syndrome have historically been studied as two separate phenomena. In this report, we connect the dots to help leaders slow burnout and increase employee retention.

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6. Take a mental health day or sabbatical leave

If your company supports them, taking a mental health day or sabbatical leave can be beneficial for those struggling with burnout and the Sunday scaries. Taking time for mental health has become increasingly important, with research showing that 1 in 7 workers experience Sunday anxiety weekly, and 11.7% have resigned from jobs specifically due to this workplace-related stress. Mental health days can help improve your mood and energy when you've been struggling with work anxiety.

A sabbatical is a lengthier period of leave, typically taken for personal or professional development purposes. Whether you're eligible for sabbatical leave and the length of the sabbatical depends on your organization. When possible, a sabbatical can be restorative and improve work-life balance.

7. Use "do not disturb" and block notifications when you're off the clock

Technology has connected us and also made us more distracted. According to recent research, the pressure of constant connectivity contributes significantly to workplace anxiety, with studies showing that over half of Americans experience end-of-weekend anxiety, often driven by the expectation to remain responsive to work demands.

• Over a third of workers feel overwhelmed by persistent pings

• 42% are spending more time on email than one year ago

• 56% feel they need to respond immediately to notifications

Despite this, only 37% of all workers snooze notifications. Look for tools that offer a "do not disturb" mode to block app notifications when you're offline. After all, your time is your time. When you're off, you should be fully off(line).

8. Plan out your work week

One root cause of the Sunday scaries is feeling overwhelmed or unprepared for the week ahead. Perhaps you have looming deadlines you're not sure you'll meet, or an upcoming presentation you don't feel ready to give. Creating a weekly work plan can help.

A weekly work plan breaks down and organizes your tasks into a manageable overview. Here's how it helps reduce Sunday scaries:

• Visibility: See what you need to do and by when

• Prioritization: Focus on what matters most

• Balance: Break large tasks into smaller to-dos to avoid overwhelm

A balanced workload means less stress during the week and less anxiety on Sunday.

9. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to identify what work is actually important

Once you've identified what work you have coming up, use the Eisenhower Matrix to determine which upcoming tasks you need to prioritize, and which you can delegate or eliminate.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a time management technique that helps you organize and prioritize work by breaking tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent but important, and not urgent or important. By figuring out how your to-dos fit into each quadrant, you can quickly identify what work actually needs to get done and what work you can schedule for later, delegate, or delete altogether.

A clearer understanding of your tasks and how to prioritize them will help you work more efficiently and reduce busywork. Take that, Sunday scaries.

10. Delegate and remove work that's not a priority for you

Your Eisenhower Matrix will give you a clearer view of what work you need to do yourself and what you can delegate. Effectively delegating work to other team members will free up your time to work on high-priority projects. It also gives your team members the chance to work on projects that better align with their skills or offer them new opportunities.

What's more, delegating tasks helps reduce burnout and overwork, two big causes of the Sunday scaries.

11. Talk to your manager about your career path

What happens when focusing on your mental health and prioritizing your to-dos doesn't ease your Sunday-night dread? If you've taken the above steps and still dread the upcoming workweek, it might be time to look for other causes, like your current career role or path.

If you consistently feel stagnant or unfulfilled, it's probably time to talk to your manager about next steps. Make a list of the things you've loved about your current or past roles, as well as what you find fulfilling in work and in life.

Then, meet with your manager to see if there's an opportunity to adjust your current role or explore other roles in the company. Finding a role better aligned with your career goals will increase your overall happiness at work, an antidote to the Sunday scaries.

12. Know when to ask for help

It's important to recognize the signs that the Sunday scaries are becoming something more serious, like depression or an anxiety disorder. If the above strategies aren't helping diminish your feelings of Sunday-night dread, or if your work anxiety is significantly impacting your life, it might be time to take further action.

Talk to your manager, mentor, or HR department about workplace benefits that might help. Remember, mental health is health. It's important to prioritize it in the workplace and beyond.

Reclaim your Sundays and start your week with confidence

The Sunday scaries are a common experience, but they don't have to define your weekends. By understanding the root causes of your anxiety and taking steps to address them, you can transform Sunday from a day of dread into a day of rest and preparation.

Remember, the Sunday scaries are often a signal that something in your work life needs

attention, whether it's your workload, your boundaries, or your overall career satisfaction. Use that signal as motivation to make meaningful changes.

Start small by implementing one or two of the strategies above, and build from there. With consistent effort, you can break the cycle of Sunday-night anxiety and approach each week with greater confidence and calm. Ready to take control of your workweek? Get started with better work management today.

Anatomy of Work Special Report: The unexplored link between impostor syndrome and burnout

Burnout and impostor syndrome have historically been studied as two separate phenomena. In this report, we connect the dots to help leaders slow burnout and increase employee retention.

Get the insights

Frequently asked questions about Sunday scaries