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ARTICLESARTICLES, , MAY 2012 EditionMAY 2012 Edition

Mondayitis – It’s really a thing 00

New City MagazineNew City Magazine May 09, 2012May 09, 2012

If you check Facebook or Twitter on a Monday morning, you are bound to see plenty of ‘Mondayitis’ jokes. Head

into work on a Monday and everyone seems to be trudging to the coffee machine with a sigh and a look of

resignation. The weekend is gone. We are here again.

Mondayitis is loosely defined as a ‘down’ feeling that strikes on Monday as we wake up to the realisation that a

new week has started. We feel unmotivated and apathetic. Follow the trending topic on Twitter and you will

find comments like “Mondayitis: Coffee won’t cure it. Is it too early for chocolate?” “Mondayitis: Whose idea was

it to set a presentation time so early? Hit snooze on the alarm. Didn’t get time for a coffee. Things aren’t looking

good.” I must confess to feeling a little rage when dealing with an overly perky morning person first thing on a

Monday. Blame it on Mondayitis I say – Even if it is a largely fictitious disorder.

But what if it is not? There are a few theories hanging around on why we get Mondayitis. Is it to do with thought

processes? Is it to do with mental health? Scientists at Flinders University in Adelaide claim that it is more to do

with sleep than anything else. Interesting thought!

Who of us doesn’t enjoy a Saturday morning sleep in? Oh I love it! You don’t have to get up for work. You don’t

have to catch a train, battle the queue at your local coffee shop for that all important personality transplant or

stare mindlessly at the computer screen waiting for your brain to reboot and reach a point of functionality. (Can

you tell I am not a morning person?) I just love the Saturday morning sleep-ins.

So imagine my delight when I read that they aren’t actually good for you. Sleep Experts say that sleeping in on

the weekend may actually carry a lot of the blame for Mondayitis. Weekend sleep-ins actually reset the body

clock. Though they do help us recover a little bit of the sleep debt that we may have accrued over a stressful

week, they do so at the expense of our sleep rhythm and indeed our Monday mood. The result is comparable to

jet lag. You feel fatigued, fuzzy-headed and unmotivated.

You see, we all have what is called a ‘circadian rhythm.’ It is the built in body clock that tells us when to rise and

shine and when to slump and sleep. Plants have a circadian rhythm. Animals do. Even fungus does. It is what

programs us for normal functionality and it should be a cycle of roughly 24 hours. When we wake up, we are

effectively interrupting and beginning our rhythm. If we do it at the same time every day, our rhythm continues

on effortlessly. When we travel across time zones, pull and all nighter or *sigh* sleep in late on the weekend,

we are effectively confusing our body clock and demanding that it readjust to a new 24 hour schedule. It can

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adjust of course but the feeling we get is like jetlag.

Yes. I am a bit horrified. My Saturday late get up is giving me jet lag every week. Imagine that! How do we avoid

Mondayitis then?

Don’ t sleep in on the weekend. Of course, if your weekend is your time to blow off steam, meet up with

friends, get home late and the like, you might have to accept Mondayitis as the cost of an active weekend social

life. But if not…

Set your alarm for the same time every day. It might be torture to sacrifice the sleep in. You might have

to make other allowances in terms of when you catch up on sleep. But this will leave you without that jet-

lagged feeling that you get on a Monday. Did you know that more work related accidents happen on a Monday?

It isn’t just our body clock that suffers. Our physical and emotional health can too.

Get an early night if you are feeling tired. Rocket science: I know. But in all seriousness, studies show

that an early night does more for regeneration than a late get-up in the morning. So if you have a sleep debt to

recover, get into bed that little bit earlier. This does wonders. There are those of us, myself included’ who sing

the praises of the powernap or the Nanna-nap but they pale in comparison to an early night.

Here is a little footnote for you: There is actually a difference between a Nanna-nap and a powernap. Yep!

Apparently, a powernap is between 15 and 26 minutes – just enough to take you into the first stages of sleep

but not that deep sleep that takes you a while to wake up from. A Nanna-nap is different. It is when you fall

asleep, say on a couch or the like, and simply sleep until you are woken by something other than an alarm. For

example, you hear the dog bark or a child laugh and then you wake up. It is a longer nap usually and does let

you sink into deeper stages of sleep. It is still shorter than a proper sleep though.

Let the sun set your clock. This is a trick used by many people with chronic sleep issues – When you wake

up, walk out into your yard and let the sun drench your brain. It might simply be going outside, looking up into

the sky and having a stretch before going back inside and eating your brekky. The sun is actually a big part of a

healthy circadian rhythm.

I am sorry to say it, but our bodies are made to adapt to the sun and the time of year. We are not made to set our

body clock by what is on TV late at night or what parties we want to go to on the weekend. The latter is what

tends to give us the dreaded Mondayitis.

So there it is ladies and gents – If you want to party, expect a little jet lag. If not, be kind to your body clock and

live in peace.

About the Author

NEW CITY is a "Positive, Healthy & Successful Living" Magazine distributed for FREE in the St

George & Sutherland Shire and expanding into Sydney CBD.

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