Sunday Scaries: How to Reclaim Your Weekend and Start Mondays Feeling Good
As the responsibilities and mental checklists of the next week start to creep in, many of us spend the hours before the new working week avoiding the reality of what's ahead. From doomscrolling until late to binge watching a favourite TV show, people across the globe are finding ways to quieten the anxious thoughts that come with the unknown of a new week of work.
It's a feeling so universal it's earned its own name, with an average of 5,400 monthly searches for 'Sunday night scaries' and interest on TikTok soaring by 1,000% in the past month alone. Not to mention a dedicated Instagram account (@sunday.scaries) focused solely on the subject of pre-work anxiety, which has accumulated over one million followers, who use it to find the lighter side of a feeling they all know too well.
As we’re all about switching off and leaving these worries at the door of our spas, we surveyed 1,000 employed adults across the UK to shine a light on the Sunday Scaries problem, exploring who experiences it, what's behind it and crucially what actually helps. We've also partnered with careers coach Kerry Sutcliffe to bring expert advice on how to protect your weekends and head into Monday feeling genuinely restored.
How many people get Sunday scaries?
Whether it's during a Sunday morning coffee run, a planned dog walk with friends or during your hard earned end-of-week roast dinner, the looming fear of Monday’s to-do list is overwhelming for many. Our research found that 8 in 10 employees experience some form of pre-work stress or anxiety. And for one in four, that anxiety doesn’t wait until Sunday, it sets in on Saturday.
The impact of this is affecting more than just people's weekends, but their working week too. Half of UK workers have called in sick on a Monday at least once in their working lives because of how they felt the night before. Not because of illness, but because the weight of returning to work became too much. More alarmingly, around 1 in 7 workers admit to doing so regularly.
Kerry Sutcliffe, careers coach, recommends getting ahead of the anxiety before it starts on a Friday, not a Sunday. "Reflect on your week and plan the next one before you log off for the weekend," she advises. "Otherwise, all those floating thoughts will keep coming back. Close the laptop knowing you're already set for Monday."
When does this fear feel the worst?
If the standard Sunday Scaries are difficult to manage, the version that hits after a holiday can feel even worse. From slow mornings and relaxing on the beach all day to being back in the office, the reality of returning to work is stark, and our research shows it’s one of the most significant triggers of pre-work anxiety. Returning to work after a holiday or time off was the second most commonly cited trigger overall, named by 26% of respondents.
For many, bank holiday weekends are a bittersweet moment - especially the last long weekend of the year. Our data reflects this, with 8% of workers identifying the August bank holiday Sunday as the most dreaded of the year, and the equivalent of 4.4 million workers say that the day before going back to work after a holiday is the ‘worst Sunday of the year’.
Doing something restorative, rather than mentally rehearsing the week ahead, means you arrive back with some reserves still in the tank. A spa day, a long walk, or simply a slow morning with no agenda can make a real difference to how Monday feels.
The employees hit the hardest
Not everyone experiences the Sunday Scaries equally; in fact, younger workers are feeling it more than most. Those aged 18 to 24 spend over three and a half hours per week feeling anxious about the week ahead, more than double the one hour and twenty minutes reported by people aged 55 and over.
When it comes to professions carrying the most Sunday anxiety, HR professionals come out on top, reporting the highest average hours of Sunday anxiety at four hours and fifteen minutes every week. Followed by the finance sector, where 1 in 4 admit to calling in sick often on Monday due to Sunday anxiety, the highest of any profession in the study. Both professions face some of the most high-pressure working environments where mistakes are costly and resources rarely stretch far enough, leaving professionals pulled between competing demands and as a result, burnout can come around quicker than most expect.
How is this affecting people on a daily basis?
The Sunday Scaries are often dismissed as being ‘normal’, but our research shows this is worth taking more seriously with the effects impacting people's sleep, mental and physical health, relationships and daily behaviour.
The most common impact is disrupted sleep, reported by 26% of those who experience pre-work anxiety. Sleep is the foundation of everything, including mood, focus, recovery and physical health. Beyond sleep, 22% say their mood takes a hit, and 21% struggle to be present and enjoy their Sundays at all. When part of your mind is already at your desk, it's hard to be present where you actually are.
Nearly 1 in 9 people experience physical symptoms including headaches, nausea or fatigue as a result of pre-work anxiety. The ripple effects extend further too, as the equivalent of 3.9 million UK workers say it strains relationships with family, friends or a partner and 2.7 million have cancelled their social plans as a result.
To cope, a staggering 1 in 8 do work on Sundays to feel in control and get ahead of Monday, meaning their weekend has already been given up before the working week actually starts.
Zooming out over a lifetime, and the picture sharpens, as these Sunday scaries take away an average of two and a half hours of the weekend every week - the equivalent of 200 days of free time lost!
What’s triggering this fear?
Getting to grips with what triggers Sunday anxiety is one of the most useful things you can do because once you can name it, you can start to manage it.
Top Triggers For Pre-Work Anxiety
| Rank | Trigger | % of respondents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A stressful or busy week ahead | 29% |
| 2 | Returning to work after a holiday or time off | 26% |
| 3 | A heavy workload or long hours | 23% |
| 4 | Lack of work-life balance | 18% |
| 5 | A difficult manager or colleagues | 17% |
| 6 | After a bank holiday or weekend | 17% |
| 7 | After a busy weekend with lots of plans | 15% |
| 8 | Before a big deadline, meeting or performance review | 14% |
| 9 | When I have to be in the office more than remotely | 11% |
| 10 | Imposter syndrome | 11% |
The most commonly cited trigger in our research was simply a stressful or busy week ahead, mentioned by 29% of respondents. Knowing that a full inbox or a difficult conversation is waiting can make switching off feel impossible, which speaks to a broader truth about modern work with the rise of an ‘always-on’ culture, heavier workloads and shrinking boundaries between professional and personal life, which have all made switching off genuinely harder. Our data shows that younger workers are feeling it most, with 97% of 18-24 year olds experiencing Sunday anxiety, alongside 91% of those aged 25-34.
Returning from holiday or time off (26%) and a heavy workload or long hours (23%) were close behind, both situations where there’s an even wider contrast between rest and reality.
Other notable triggers included a lack of work-life balance, a tricky manager or colleague dynamic, and returning after a bank holiday. For 11%, anxiety is heightened with office attendance, having the prospect of commuting rather than working remotely clouding the weekend.
When it comes to the worst points of the year, the Sunday before returning after Christmas and New Year stands out for 16% of respondents, while 15% said the darker months, when mornings and evenings are at their gloomiest, make the fear harder to shake. A further 14% said they feel it consistently year-round.
Self-care as a coping strategy
While some reach for the remote and others lie in until noon, 21% of people say self-care is their go-to coping strategy when Sunday anxiety strikes. When the mind is running ahead to Monday, doing something deliberate for yourself, whether that be slowly applying your skincare or spending time journaling and noting down your thoughts, this allows for separate time away from the fears to have a moment that is your own.
Maddie Evans, wellness expert at SpaSeekers, has shared that building self-care into Sunday isn’t a luxury, it’s a practical tool:
"When we give ourselves permission to properly switch off, even just for a few hours, we tend to go into the week with more capacity, not less. It’s not about escaping Monday, it’s about arriving at it in better shape."
What people are doing and what works best
When asked how they cope with Sunday anxiety, the most popular responses were watching TV or films (36%), scrolling social media (23%) and staying in bed for a lie-in (19%). While understandable, these are largely avoidance tactics rather than genuine remedies which are numbing the feeling rather than addressing it.
However, walking in nature (26%), spending time with family and friends (26%) and exercise (21%) all featured prominently and these are precisely the activities that research supports for regulating the nervous system, lowering cortisol and building the kind of mental resilience that makes Monday feel manageable.
How to overcome the Sunday Scaries?
Kerry Sutcliffe, Corporate & Individual Coach at Kerry Sutcliffe Coaching, works with individuals and teams experiencing exactly this kind of workplace anxiety. She explains that the Sunday Scaries are often rooted in something deeper than a busy diary.
"This anxiety is often brought on due to a mismatch between someone's personal values and their professional environment. People can be themselves at home all weekend, and then have to make the switch to who they feel they need to be at work, sometimes described as 'wearing a mask'."
Other common causes Kerry sees include unrealistic workload expectations, conflict with a line manager, or a growing awareness that a role simply isn't the right fit. Kerry shares that the feeling, however uncomfortable, is worth paying attention to.
"The Sunday Scaries could be described as a physical alarm bell, telling you that something is not right. It's a sign, a flashing red light and something you should listen to, pay attention to, and take action on. Otherwise, I believe it can lead to not just mental but physical illness."
So what can you actually do about it?
Kerry advises getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper before the weekend even begins:
"Journalling is so very helpful, and yet commonly not practised. Try it. Get on paper and out of your head all of those unhelpful thoughts. If it's a weekly ritual of feeling real dread, something definitely needs to change."
How to reset and take your weekend back
There's a reason spa visits and wellness experiences continue to grow in popularity year-on-year. It's not purely about indulgence, though there's absolutely nothing wrong with treating yourself; it's because intentional, phone-free time spent focused on your physical and mental wellbeing genuinely works.
A few hours in a spa delivers exactly what the mind and body need to properly reset. Whether that's floating in a thermal pool, unwinding in a sauna, or simply lying somewhere warm and quiet with your phone in a locker, the combination of relaxation and disconnection does something that a Sunday evening on the sofa rarely can.
With that all in mind, we want to help people reclaim their Sundays, so we are offering 10% off Sunday spa bookings during summer 2026, to make sure they are a true day of rest, and not of anxiety. Just use the code NOSCARIES10 when booking a spa break on any Sunday between 1st June 2026 and 31st July 2026. If you’re feeling in need of a break from the Sunday scaries, book your spa visit today.
Methodology
Research conducted by Censuswide on behalf of SpaSeekers, among a sample of 1,000 employed UK adults aged 18+. Data collected May 2026.
- Search data was collected using Google Search Console over the last 12 months worldwide.
- The ‘200 days’ figure is based on a mean of 2 and a half hours of Sunday anxiety per week across the EU average of 37.2 year working life. This equals 199.61 days, or 6 months 17 days.
- 3.9 million workers who feel pre-work anxiety say it strains relationships with family, friends based on 9% of the 34.33 million working population (the number of people aged 16+ currently in employment within the UK)
- 2.7 million workers who have cancelled social plans as a result based on 8% of the 34.33 million working population
Terms and Conditions- 10% off with NOSCARIES10:
Use code NOSCARIES10 at checkout to enjoy 10% off your spa booking. The following conditions apply:
- Only valid on bookings between 1st June and 31st July 2026
- The discount exclusively applies to Sunday bookings, any bookings places for another day of the week using this code will be invalid.
- Your stay must begin on a Sunday to qualify. For example, if you’re booking a 1 or 2 night spa break, your arrival day must fall on a Sunday.