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Sunday Night Syndrome.
by Robyn Campbell // Director // CAMPBELL & DEAN MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Are you suffering from Sunday Night Syndrome?

How many of you have difficulty sleeping on Sunday night? You've had a busy weekend and have managed to forget about work for most of the weekend - but at 1.17am then 2.47am (or is it 3.43 am?) on Monday morning you are wide awake and just can't get back to sleep. Your mind is ticking over with what lies ahead at work on that day. You are trying to remember a salient point or a name or something you have to do or have forgotten to do. You can't. Then you remember it. Then you repeat it over and over in your head. You might even say it out loud for reinforcement. And you feel stressed because you are worried you might not remember what you are trying to remember!

Reminds you of going back to school after the long summer holidays - that same feeling of anxiety and panic about what might or might not lie ahead never seems to go away, does it? That break between work and recreation seems increasingly fleeting in this hi-tech short-term focus disposable world of work into which we seem to be evolving.

Speaking to many people in many walks of life I have found that Sunday Night Syndrome is not confined to those who might really have something to worry about - it also envelops the highly competent and the highly talented, maybe even more so, as they strive for success.

"I get a knot in my stomach thinking about Monday"

"I just can't seem to get to sleep - I toss and turn with different projects running around my head"

"I forget about work for a while over the weekend but at about 3.00 pm on Sunday I start thinking about it again."

As a manager there are often tough business decisions to be implemented - employees who have faithfully served an organisation for years who are to be put off, a redundancy you don't really think is necessary, sales/revenue is not quite what was projected to be. Or perhaps you have invested in a product or service that is not quite earning its keep......... yet. Do you persevere? What are the implications if you don't? It can be an emotional rollercoaster if you cannot rationalise the business case for what you are doing and divorce yourself from the emotional side of decision making.
Ahhh, Sunday Night Syndrome...

So what are some of the strategies you might use to deal with Sunday Night Syndrome?
Here is a non-exhaustive list:

• 1. Ensure that when you leave work on Friday night that you have not left tasks that could have easily been completed. Write a TO DO list for Monday. Shift the monkey from your back.
  
• 2. If you must take work home, take only what you really must do - not what you might get around to doing, but realistically won't.
  
• 3. If you do wake up during the night, have a pen and paper on your bedside table. Write down what is troubling you. Again get the monkey off your back. Transfer some of that anxiety you have on to paper. Don't rely on your memory.
  
• 4. If you don't go back to sleep, get up and do something - grab a glass of water, flick through a magazine, listen to talkback radio (that will definitely send you to sleep), fold the washing - nothing too taxing or you will really wake up. Now go back to bed.
  
• 5. Tell someone else what you are worried about - it never seems quite as bad once you have told someone, obviously bearing in mind any confidentiality issues. The expression about a problem shared being a problem halved may not be quite true, but it certainly helps to reduce the perspective of a problem.
  
• 6. Have a very active Sunday so you are tired out at the end of the day. Avoid stimulants such as coffee and alcohol in the evening.
  
• 7. Consider taking up yoga, or having a regular massage or some other relaxation therapy that you can utilize before you go to bed.
  
• 8. Confront issues you have at work, if they are worrying you. Don't let them fester. If it is a work problem that is troubling you speak to a colleague whom you are confident you can you trust (but be careful - in some work environments this may be seen as demonstrating vulnerability) or speak to a friend outside work who will understand. Often a new head can bring a fresh approach to a problem. If it is a personal problem, consider using internal counselling services offered through your employer, such as employee assistance programs, or seek outside assistance.
  
• 9. Is your job getting you down? Is it time to look for an alternative? Make the decision and commit either way.
  
• 10. When did you last read a good book or magazine article before you went to sleep? Escape into another world, far from your own.

So what time is it now? 4.37 am? At least the article is written.

Is it Monday already?

Goodness, nearly time to officially get up, but not quite. Just few more minutes' sleep.........................

© Campbell & Dean

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