What is “Monday morning syndrome” ? Science has finally found the answer

Many workers struggle to get back to their files on Monday, after being away from the office for 48 hours. cyano66/Getty Images

Specialists agree that we are sleeping less and less, including during the weekend. It's not always easy to rest on Saturday and Sunday, between cleaning, shopping and various outing invitations. However, sleeping well on our days off is essential to being efficient at work, according to a German study.

A research team affiliated with the University of Mannheim looked at how the quality of sleep during the weekend influences the ability of employees to mentally reconnect to their work on Monday, and to be effective throughout the week.

Pathological

Because a large number of workers struggle to get back to their files on Monday morning, after being away from the office for 48 hours. Some even tend to be aggressive that day, before softening over the week, according to an article published in 2021 by the Journal of Applied Psychology. For some, this phenomenon is even pathological. Researchers speak of “Monday morning syndrome”, a disorder that manifests itself, among other things, in a lack of energy, irritability and difficulty concentrating.< /p>

If the existence of this syndrome is contested, there is no doubt that workers must carry out a process of psychological reattachment, that is to say, mentally reconnect with their objectives professionals, after days of rest. The authors of the present study, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, put forward the idea that working people experience less difficulty getting to work on Monday when they have slept well during the weekend.< /p>

To test this hypothesis, researchers followed 310 German employees for five weeks. The latter had to answer a questionnaire on the quality of their sleep and their reattachment to work on Monday, then, on Friday, another on their level of fatigue and performance throughout the week.

Take a rest on the weekend

It turns out that volunteers who had enough rest over the weekend had less trouble getting to work on Monday morning. Conversely, those who had not slept well during their rest days had more difficulty getting back into the swing of things. Surprisingly, workers who had worked too short nights on Saturday and Sunday due to various social obligations seemed immune. They managed to get to work on Monday morning, despite their sleep debt.

On the other hand, the co-signatories of the study noticed that the fatigue accumulated during the weekend does not directly affect the performance of employees. But, since exhaustion harms long-term effectiveness, it's important to make rest a priority.

This is why you need to make sure you sleep well on Saturday and Sunday. It may seem trivial, but sleep is the key to making Monday a satisfying and productive day, and no longer the worst day of the week. To do this, apply the precepts of the "quiet weekend" and feel guilty about resting. Without energy, you won't go far.