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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now on Monday morning call-in on the Sunday Scaries. Do you get the Sunday Scaries? Call in and tell us what your Sunday Scaries tend to focus on and what helps you deal with that pre-Monday anxiety? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We asked today in part because it's Monday. Maybe you've been dealing with this in the last 24 hours, but mostly because it often helps people to talk about anxieties like these out loud.

It can help other people to know that they're not alone or that you might have some Sunday Scaries tips. Do you get the Sunday Scaries? You're invited right now to call in and tell us what your Sunday Scaries tend to focus on and what helps you deal with that pre-Monday anxiety and get a full night's sleep on Sunday night, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Now, it's not at all new that people get anxious on Sundays about the work week ahead. That's basically what Sunday Scaries are but for some reason, the Sunday Scaries have been getting a lot of press lately.

This might be the result of a recent survey of younger adults from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that found about a third of millennials and people in Gen Z say it's often harder for them to fall asleep on Sunday nights than on any other night of the week, so listeners, does this sound like you? Does thinking about your job or all the things you're managing in your life, job, and other things tend to keep you awake on Sunday nights more than other nights? If so, why do you think that is? What do you do to successfully manage it? 212-433 WNYC, 433-9692.

According to the website, consumers.healthday.com, the academy of sleep medicine recommends a few things to ward off the Sunday Scaries, including prepare for the week ahead by completing tasks throughout the weekend. That way, you're not overwhelmed by all you have to do on Monday morning. it says, "Don't wait until Sunday to clean grocery shop or do laundry, but spread out the tasks throughout the week."

The Cleveland Clinic has a 10-tips page to ward off the Sunday Scaries. That one includes create a Sunday night routine. A routine will give you something to look forward to and ease the transition, watch your favorite TV shows or make a special Sunday evening meal. Our bodies and minds love consistency, says the Cleveland Clinic, and a routine and it says, "Treat yourself to Monday morning perks, enjoy a cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop, or listen to a podcast on the way to work." These things can help Mondays even be even more enjoyable, It says so.

Maybe those things are helpful, but interestingly, the Cleveland Clinic list contradicts the Academy of Sleep Medicine list in at least one way. While the Academy suggests preparing for the week ahead by doing some Monday morning tasks in advance on the weekend if you can. The Cleveland Clinic says "If possible, avoid doing work during the weekend to allow yourself to recharge your batteries, that might mean putting your phone away or saving emails for the work week."

Maybe that's just an individual difference thing. I find, for me, it helps to do some Monday morning show prep on the weekend and catch up on some emails I haven't gotten to by Friday to ward off the Sunday Scaries. Maybe for other people, it helps to just shut out all the work tasks as much as you can on the weekend. Maybe it's just good to ask yourself that question, which kind of person are you? Then find your sweet spot.

The Cleveland Clinic also suggests instead of work for work, work on some Sunday projects that are particular to Sundays. They say, "Put a piece of furniture together or clean." They say "Mindless tasks can help you get ready for the week ahead." Listeners, what do you do to keep Sunday as bearable as possible and ward off the Sunday Scaries? Help other listeners by telling them what you do, 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

I will also throw in here, before we go to the phones, that I think this week leading up to labor day can be the grand Sunday Scaries of the year. I've experienced that in my life. I love the summer. I am a real summer person and I'm always bummed when summer ends and I start anticipating it as Labor Day gets close. I imagine this is especially acute for teachers and students tied to the usual school year schedule if July and August are like a very long weekend.

The last week of August or Labor Day weekend could be one long Sunday scary. Do you experience that? If you're on a school schedule and if so, how do you manage it? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. On do you get, and how do you deal with, to manage your Sunday Scariest? Mary in Albany. Hi, Mary. You are on WNYC.

Mary: Hi, Brian, longtime listener, and first-time caller.

Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on. I see you're okay, but your husband gets the Sunday Scaries?

Mary: No, he gets the Sunday Scaries. I love my jobs and him not so much so I try to help him out as much as possible.

Brian Lehrer: In what way?

Mary: Well, I like to exercise, so we go for nice walks if we can in beautiful scenery. It's very important to see green trees and grass. Then we do maybe outdoor work if we can in the yard or just anything like that, that can be relaxing and calming and take your mind off of what you have to do on Mondays.

Brian Lehrer: Very nice. Thanks for calling us, Mary. Sturgis on Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sturgis.

Sturgis: Hi, Brian. How are you? I love your show.

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. You get the Sunday scary, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead.

Sturgis: Sorry. Yes, I do. I didn't actually know there was a name for it and listening to your show this morning I discovered that. I'm an accountant, so after I started in the industry, every Sunday I'd get that nervousness not knowing what to expect Monday morning. If I needed to correct work or what my boss would say. The way the routine we'd come up with my wife would have helped me, we'd meet with friends. That helped me relax my mind, but I'm listening to the show and hopefully, I can learn something and get some tips.

Brian Lehrer: All right, let's see what other people have for you then, Sturgis. Thank you very much. Maybe Fred and Tina have something. Hi, Fred. You're on WNYC.

Fred: Good morning, long-time listener and sustaining them for those who are not members of WNYC should do that and contribute but

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Unsolicited plug. Thank you very much.

Fred: Unsolicited. That is right. I am a bi-vocational pastor and commercial real estate broker. I also teach ethics at a local college, so I find myself with a lot of, I used to call them Sunday night feelings and scaries at different times of the week. To alleviate the Sunday Scaries, I do my best not to schedule anything before eleven o'clock on Monday morning and take some special time just to maybe sleep late sometimes or to read.

I've recently heard about a book on your show and maybe it was fresh air. I think it was your show though. I'm getting in the morning pages and just writing in the morning and trying [inaudible 00:08:12]. I do what I have to do to try and keep my mind from worrying about the week ahead, by easing into the week and taking care of myself on Monday mornings.

Brian Lehrer: I guess it's great. If you can do it, if you don't have that job where you have to report at 9:00 AM Monday morning or something like that. You can ease into the week. You remind me that one time I had a schedule where my days off were Sunday and Monday. Worked Saturday but my days off were Sunday and Monday, and I actually loved it.

This feeling of going to sleep on Sunday and waking up Monday morning and not having to work made me feel like I was putting one over on the rest of the world and was able to do whatever on Mondays and Saturdays still felt pretty good because when I got off of work, I had Saturday night, but Fred, you might have to call us-

Fred: Can I say one other thing?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, please do.

Fred: I had a mentor, for my first job out of college in a management program at MetLife. This gentleman became the general counsel, but he wasn't when he was talking with me. He said every 10 days he took a day off, no matter where it fell on the calendar. If it was a weekend, it was a day that he would use for him or whatever his self-care routine was and I didn't really get into what it was that he did.

I said to myself at the time, I just can't do that. Where I am, a junior member of a team trying to progress, I can't do that, but later, I kept thinking about it as I moved through my career and grew older. Even two years ago, I said, "I can't do these things." Then I asked myself, "Why can't I?" If I can't take a full day, "What can I do?" It just started my mind thinking about the possibilities of what it is I actually can do and what constructs do I need to break down about who I am and what I do and what I need to do for myself everyday.

Brian Lehrer: That's really good. Now someday, Fred, you are going to have to call us back and referencing the beginning of your phone call, tell us how you can be an ethics counselor and a real estate broker at the same time, that must be a new trick.

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Thank you for calling us, let's do that on another day. Peter in Manhattan you're on WNYC. Hi, Peter.

Peter: Brian, greetings to you. First of all, I thought I was in a group of one, I didn't know this was a thing. I've been scoffed at by wires and partners for the last 40 years so I'm glad there was a natural affinity group. This is really from my dad, but what I do and still do after 40 years is I prepare each day's outfit at Sunday at five o'clock which I know sounds a bit [unintelligible 00:11:00].

As I prepare each outfit for each day, I project into that particular day deal with, at least at some level, what I think's going to happen in each of those days and that helps to relieve some anxiety. I might tell you that does also include shining shoes for each of those days. In the old days, ironing shirt for each of those days, I'm talking about full outfits so I've already lived through the week through my clothing routine.

Brian Lehrer: I get it, I do a similar thing when I'm going to the office. I lay my clothes out the night before not the whole week like you're describing on Sunday, but the night before. It gives me a little something to lean into some optimism on, wake up and you know that those clothes that you want to wear you've laid out. That's a nice touch, but you do it for the week ahead so that's a good tip. Interesting, listeners, that a lot of you have never heard of the Sunday Scaries and are happy to hear it has a name so this is something that really may help people in this respect. John in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, John.

John: Hi, first-time caller, long-time listener. I'm very excited to be here.

Brian Lehrer: You've got a very creative suggestion it looks like from our screener.

John: I was thinking a lot of these solutions are what people are doing, but I wonder if there's something a company or business could do and so I've had this idea for a long time. In the summertime, companies give people summer Fridays, you can leave the office early on Friday. Especially, in the most depressed time of the year in the winter, what if companies engage people winter Mondays so that you had the option to come in a little bit later and maybe prepare for the week or just decompress and calm down after the weekend or whatever?

Brian Lehrer: That's so interesting, John, winter Mondays, okay. Labor unions and everybody else take this on winter Mondays now and again in the winter months. Daniel in Manhattan's going to get our last word on this with something that's consistent with that. Daniel, you're on WNYC, we've got about 30 seconds for you.

Daniel: Great. I have my own business and I do both things that your other caller said, one is that for myself I don't schedule anything on Monday until 11:00 AM. For my team, I actually have all of our meetings on Tuesday for the week and the week prior. We discuss what's going to happen for Tuesday so people can hold over and have things to do on Monday without having a deadline [unintelligible 00:13:58].

Brian Lehrer: Very, very nice, there you go. All right, I'm going to finish this up by telling you that I also noticed among the various news sites that have been reporting and chatting about Sunday Scaries recently. The entertainment site awardsradar.com has a feature they call Sunday Scaries which seems to be an article about a different horror movie that they dropped the article on every Sunday.

Yesterday's was a take on what the writer saw as one of the worst horror movies ever made called fear.com and the article begins by basically saying you do not have to see this miserable movie just because I'm writing about it. [chuckles] Then it goes on to describe why it was so awful and also a few redeeming good things about it. The whole idea of the recurring feature called Sunday Scaries made me think that maybe for some people, they're definitely not for me seeing a scary movie can help board off the Sunday Scaries. Thanks for all your calls.

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