A few weeks back, The New Yorker published a peaceful meditation on the “peculiar appeal” of…wait for it…Sundays. The essay is one of Joeseph Roth’s, a turn-of-the-century Austrian novelist and reporter. Roth’s journalistic pieces are appearing in a new translation at the end of September. Here’s a small sample of the piece that appeared in the New Yorker, humbly titled “People On Sundays”:
“People ring in Sundays with bells, the beating of carpets, and indolent coffee in bed. They throw open their windows and sniff freedom. They ransack wardrobes and chests of drawers and put on special items to celebrate the day of idleness on which their souls dangle.
On Sunday I stand by the window. The house opposite has thrown open all its windows like glass butterfly wings as though—whoosh, didn’t you see it!?—to fly away. It can’t, though, it is too weighed down by furniture, people, and destinies.”
I think he perfectly captures the anxiousness of our last weekend evening as thoughts turn again to work:
“Sunday evenings are thin and mealy, as if they were already part of Monday. Gabriel is back to being a double entry-bookkeeper, and the girls iron their creased white dresses and smell of bread and butter.”
That got me thinking: Why is it that we all hate Mondays so much? Science, as it turns out, has some answers. In a blog for mentalfloss.com Kathy Benjamin lays down six reasons why many Americans dislike Mondays:
- Sleep Patterns
- Over the weekend we, tend to diverge from our typical sleep schedule. Those extra hours of rest stolen on Sunday and Saturday (before “indolent coffee in bed”) end up hurting us as we turn back to strict rigors of early work-week risings.
- “Since most people don’t get enough sleep during the week, they often try to make up for it on weekends. But sleeping in even an hour or two for just two days can confuse your body clock. According to scientists, that extra sleep just makes you more tired at the start of the week, because it can throw your body clock off by up to 45 minutes.”
- Our Behavior is Worse Over the Weekend
- No surprise here. We tend to over-do-it on the weekends. Social gatherings, birthday parties, or even football games are frequent weekend occasions for over consumption, be it food or alcohol.
- “Your average weekend might involve eating, drinking, or smoking more than normal. And all of these things take a toll on you physically, which may be why one study found that American women of all ages and locations feel least attractive on Mondays.”
- Most Americans Don’t Like Their Job
- Of all the reasons we tend to dislike Mondays, this is the most obvious.
- “According to a massive Gallup poll, 70 percent of people hate or, at best, are “completely disengaged” from their job. This contributes to what psychiatrists and career coaches call the “Monday Blues.” Feelings of depression and anxiety can start on Sunday night, leading to an unproductive Monday.”
You can read more about the science behind the Monday problem, including the other three factors behind our collective malaise at Mentalfloss.com.
If those blues continue throughout the week, it may be a sign of Season Affective Disorder or SAD. You can find out more about SAD in Tina O’Connor’s article on VISTA Today here.
