When weekends don't help. Why Work Week Worries Come on Sunday

Why two free days is not enough for recovery and what regular alarm on Sunday can say, the correspondent of the agency “Minsk-Novosti” told the psychologist Tatyana Grinkevich.

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When the body rests and the head continues to work

At first glance, the situation seems paradoxical: a person has not been at work for two days, slept longer than usual, watched movies, walked, met with loved ones, and by Sunday evening feels as if there are not five working days ahead, but a serious test.

According to the psychologist, the reason may be that physical rest and psychological recovery are not the same thing:

- You can spend the weekend at home, do almost nothing, but do not feel rested. If constant tension continues in the head, thoughts return to work tasks, possible problems and experiences due to Monday, the nervous system does not actually get a full pause.

It turns out that formally we do not work, but psychologically we continue to work. This is especially noticeable in those who find it difficult to disconnect from the phone and work chats.

Another common situation is when all weekends go on household chores. Cleaning, shopping, cooking, business trips, solving accumulated issues. On Monday, the person returns to work, and there is no feeling that he really had two free days.

Weekends are not always equal to recovery. If all free time is occupied by obligations, you can physically not be in the workplace, but at the same time continue to live in the mode of “necessary”. And the restoration involves at least some space where there is no constant need to meet the requirements and do something, said T. Grinkevich.

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I haven't started yet, but I'm tired

One sign that the problem may be more than just not wanting to get up early on Mondays — when anxiety becomes regular and begins to affect well-being.

For example, when on Sunday evening there is tension in the body, it is impossible to relax, not sleep. On Monday morning, he finds it difficult to get out of bed, and after several hours of work, his condition gradually normalizes. Then, closer to the next Sunday, everything repeats.

- It is important to pay attention to repetition. If a person gets upset from time to time about the end of the weekend, this in itself does not indicate any serious problem. But if almost every Sunday is accompanied by severe anxiety, sleep disturbance, expressed irritation or a feeling of hopelessness, it is worth thinking about what exactly happens in working life and how much this load is possible, the expert stressed.

Rest may be "wrong"

Sometimes we try to recover in a way that doesn’t really suit us, she said.

Someone after a busy week wants to lie at home and watch TV shows. The other, on the contrary, gets worse from two days without movement and communication - he needs a walk, sports or meeting with friends.

There is another extreme: trying to make the weekend the most intense two days. There is no universal recipe for a perfect day.

- It is important to focus not only on what it is customary to fill your free time, but also on your own state after that. If you feel even more fatigue after rest, it may be worth reconsidering its format, T. Grinkevich advised.

Photo is illustrative, photo magnific.com

"Enjoy" weekend

There is another trap - the desire to make the most of your free days. A person knows that work will start again on Monday, so he tries to get as much pleasure from Saturday and Sunday as possible.

There is an installation "We need to have time to rest." But rest, which turns into another task, ceases to be rest.

We begin to follow the time: in the morning you need to sleep, in the afternoon be sure to go out for a walk, in the evening to watch a movie, meet with friends. When Sunday ends, it feels like there is too little free time.

- Sometimes we create extra pressure around rest. It seems to us that the weekend must necessarily be productive, rich or very pleasant. But if you constantly evaluate how good the rest is, it becomes another form of control. Rest does not necessarily have to be useful, beautiful or effective, the psychologist noted.

Doesn't rest help?

If after several weekends in a row you do not feel any recovery, it is worth looking not only at the quality of rest, but also at the load itself.

Sometimes the problem is that your free time is not properly organized. But it also happens that the weekend is objectively not enough to compensate for the constant stress during the working week.

It is especially worth paying attention to the situation if fatigue becomes constant, interest in familiar activities disappears, there are problems with sleep, irritability, a feeling of constant tension or unwillingness to do anything after work.

- It’s helpful to ask yourself, “What exactly am I getting tired of?” If a person tries to recover every time, but is in the same state again and again, it may be necessary to look for the source of chronic stress. Sometimes it is a workload, sometimes - the absence of boundaries between work and personal life, and sometimes - internal requirements for yourself, because of which a person practically does not allow himself to stop, the psychologist added.

After all, a good rest isn’t necessarily two days without thinking about work. Rather, it’s a time when life isn’t just about responsibilities.