I can just catch up on the weekend, right?
…about that.
You know that feeling when Sunday night rolls around? Your shoulders tense. Your brain starts to spin. You dread how much tomorrow’s going to suck.
And sure, maybe part of that is Sheila—the narcissistic communications director who hijacks every meeting with her “clever” wordplay. Or Steven, who once again ate your Greek yogurt. (Seriously, Steven?)
But the real culprit might not be your coworkers. It might be your weekend sleep-ins.
And believe me—I get it. Come Saturday night, you come home from that great Italian dinner, a few glasses of Barbera. You curl up on the sofa with your significant other to catch up on Season 4 of The Bear. You go to bed late… and you smile as you grab your phone and don’t set an alarm.
Because you deserve that, right?
And you do. Really. But your internal clock? It might be screaming, “What the hell is happening?!”
Let’s talk weekend catch-up sleep.
Yes, it can help. A new study shows that sleeping in 1–2 hours on the weekend is linked to: less depression, better mood regulation, lower inflammation, and a slightly lower BMI
But here’s the twist: those same studies show that 1–2 nights of “recovery sleep” can’t undo chronic sleep loss. That’s because sleep isn’t like a bank—you can’t just pay off a week of bad sleep with one long weekend snooze. That leftover exhaustion is called sleep debt, and it builds up when you consistently don’t get enough rest.
And if your sleep schedule swings wildly from weekday to weekend? That can cause social jetlag—a kind of circadian whiplash that makes you feel like you’ve flown across time zones without ever leaving your bed.
Social jetlag messes with your mood, focus, and metabolism—and yes, it might be why Mondays feel so brutal. Even without Sheila launching into her “thought leadership” monologue at 9:01 AM.
So what should you actually do?
In a perfect world: try to keep your sleep and wake times pretty consistent—even on weekends. A little wiggle room is fine, but if you can keep it within an hour or so, your body will thank you.
In the real world (you know, where life happens): if you’re totally wiped, sleeping in a bit is definitely better than powering through on fumes. Just don’t expect it to magically erase all your sleep debt. It’s recovery—not a reboot.
The bottom line?
That Sunday Scaries feeling? It might be your body clock, confused and cranky from your weekend “vacation.”
The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your life—just give your sleep a little more consistency.
Because sleep isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategy. And the more you work with your body, the less Mondays will suck. Although I can’t do anything about your coworkers.
