The 6PM Dread
It’s 6:17 PM on a Sunday. You’re on the sofa, scrolling, but not actually seeing anything. The weekend felt like it just got started, but somehow it’s already over.
Your stomach’s heavy, your chest is tight, and Monday looms like a tax bill you can’t ignore. You open Instagram and see other people brunching, hiking, or sipping cocktails, while you spent the day wrestling laundry and batch-cooking pasta.
Welcome to the Sunday Scaries: that creeping dread that hijacks the last hours of your weekend and turns them into a pre-Monday rehearsal for stress.
The Real Cost of Lost Sundays
If your weekends don’t actually restore you, you’re starting Monday already in debt. Week after week, that “recovery debt” builds until even small work stress feels like too much.
One reader put it bluntly: “I was basically working seven days a week — just unpaid for two of them.” If that rings a bell, it’s not just your mood; it’s your whole energy system quietly breaking down.
he Anatomy of Sunday Dread
Sunday Scaries usually hit in three flavours:
- Time anxiety – “The weekend’s slipping through my fingers.”
- Transition anxiety – struggling to shift gears between rest and work.
- Control anxiety – “Next week is already bossing me around.”
Sound familiar? The cruel twist: the harder you try to squeeze the joy out of Sunday, the more stressed you get about “wasting” it. Welcome to the rest paradox.
How to Fight Back (Without Moving to a Monastery)
1. Bury the Laptop
Pick one boundary and make it sacred. Shut the laptop at 5 PM and don’t dig it back out until Monday. Yes, it feels awkward at first. But your brain needs the signal: work is over.
2. Invent a Sunday Sunset Ritual
It doesn’t have to be deep. A walk with no podcast. A special tea. Stretching to a chilled playlist. The point is consistency. That ritual tells your nervous system, “The weekend is closing gently, not slamming shut.”
Pair it with The Five-Minute Journal — perfect for a short reflection without overthinking.
3. Monday Preview (But Tiny)
Spend ten minutes jotting down your top 3 things for Monday. Not everything — just three. It’s like tricking your brain into thinking you’re “ready,” so it stops panicking about the endless unknown.
I like keeping a simple notebook or planned nearby for this (James Clear’s Atomic Habits is a great mindset refresher if you need a push).
When Scaries Point to Something Bigger
If every Sunday feels like dread, it might not just be about routines — it could be about work itself. Chronic Sunday anxiety is often your body waving a red flag about burnout or misalignment.
But here’s the hopeful bit: even tiny changes ripple. Protect Sunday night → arrive Monday less wrecked → handle stress better. Protect enough Sundays, and you start changing the whole rhythm of your week.
Tools That Actually Help
- Burnout by Emily & Amelia Nagoski — brilliant on breaking stress cycles.
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport — especially if doomscrolling fuels your Scaries.
- Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey — for when rest feels guilty.
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk — understanding stress in your body.
- Sunrise alarm clock — better than waking up to panic-buzzer Monday mornings.
Final Squeeze
Sunday Scaries aren’t a character flaw. They’re what happens when an always-on culture steals the last bit of your weekend.
You don’t need to cure them overnight. You just need one boundary, one ritual, one small squeeze to remind yourself: Sunday evening belongs to you.
Your future Monday self will thank you.
Join The Extra Squeeze — weekly scenarios, science bites, and tiny actions to help you squeeze more from your day.