We all feel it: that feeling of weight, of restlessness, of tiredness already on the awakening of Monday. And no,. Recent research conducted byUniversity of Hong Kong and published on the Journal of affective disorders He showed that trying anxiety at the beginning of the week can have deep and lasting effects on our body.
The researchers analyzed a sample of Over 3,500 adults over 50 years old in the UK. Participants were asked to indicate on which day of the week they had felt greater anxiety. Then, one or two months later, they were taken hair samplesan increasingly used technique to measure the presence of cortisolthe hormone that reports chronic stress.
The data are clear: Those who indicated Monday as a day of greatest anxiety have shown a 23% increase in cortisol levelseven after weeks. A fact that worries, especially because The peak of cortisol was independent of the working state, the daily routine and even from age. On Monday, everyone hits us, even if we are retired.
Why is Monday so heavy?
Cortisol, scientists explain, is a precious substance: it serves to keep us active, policemen, ready to react. But when remains high for too longbegins to do serious damage. It weakens the immune defenses, increases the risk of chronic anxiety, cardiovascular disorders and persistent inflammations.
Robert Sapolskybiologist and neuroscientist of the University of Stanford, explains it as follows:
Cortisol is not activated only when we live real stress. Very often it enters the circle only because we anticipate it. The same expectation of Monday can be enough to give it to it.
Second Modpe Akinolaprofessor at Columbia Business School, on Monday represents an extra psycho-physical load, made of gestures that break the quiet of the weekend: get up early, dress, go out, face traffic, manage productivity. Even just the idea of doing it can make you feel unprepared, as if the internal resources were not sufficient.
The body sends us a strong and clear signal: a battle is about to start.
The problem is that this battle repeats itself every week. And over time, the body can start paying the price: increases the risk of heart attacks, especially on Monday morningas other studies have highlighted for some time.
The transition from the slow pace of the weekend to the frenzy of Monday is a transition that the body does not face lightly. The rhythms of sleep change, variety varies, physical movement also follows other times. Our internal watch is upsetand on Monday morning he arrives like an alarm ring.
That’s why, as Akinola suggests, it can be useful take time to listen and identify the sources of stress before it arrives on Monday:
Many of us don’t even notice that they are stressed, let alone know what is really stressing them.
Its proposal is to create a Weekly stress inventory: a moment to stop, understand what we fear, where we hear tension, what he sends us on tilt.
Bringing awareness to the foreground also means regaining control. If we understand what disturbs us, we can prepare ourselves better. And maybe start the week with some more tools to protect us from an impact that, otherwise, risks wearing us slowly.
