Poof! There goes your weekend in a cloud of sleep.
Dubai-based marketing executive Anjali Arora knows the feeling a little too well. Weekends, meant for rejuvenation, vanish in a vortex of "brief afternoon naps" that morph into evenings. Before she knows it, Monday is back, and Arora feels like she never left office. "It's like if I'm not busy at work, I'm just catching up on sleep," she says, bewildered.
It’s the same story everywhere. Dubai-based Tania Menon, a sales professional has a similar tale to tell. During the week, she promises herself that the weekend will be productive. She will get something done. Perhaps, she could buy new plants, or redecorate her living room, maybe just sit with her writing dreams that seemed to be getting more elusive by the day.
However, as the clock strikes weekend, she just curls up in the blanket and sleeps through it.
Why does rest sometimes feel so... restless? Is there a scientific explanation for this weekend fatigue, or are we simply doing something wrong?
Why are we always so tired on the weekends?
Well, a lot comes down to your work week habits. If you’re always feeling tired on your weekends or days off and after it, it’s time to rethink your sleep practices, first.
For starters, reflect on your week, explains Aliah Khan, a Dubai-based corporate wellness coach and expert. “We’re always in a state of heightened stress: The week is full of targets to achieve, meetings to attend and rigid deadlines to meet. And so, your body just resides in a fight-or-flight state, which is a physiological response to anxiety. Your breathing rate increases along with your heart rate, as your body is flooded with anxiety. These are normal changes, that are designed to protect us,” she says.
This fight-or-flight state goes into overdrive during the week. So, when we finally have the weekend, our bodies let go, and relax. Our brain turns off the adrenaline pump. Exhaustion just hits us like a ton of bricks, and so we just go to sleep. It’s the constant overstimulation from work, exposure to screens that thrusts into this state of burnout. So, as a result, by weekend, we’re just fatigued after all the strategising, learning and planning that we just don’t want to think about anything else, explains Khan.
The consequences of sleep debt
The body really keeps the score.
Just think of sleep debt as a financial debt but for your sleep. Just like spending more money than you earn results in financial debt, not getting enough sleep adds up and creates sleep debt. Each time you sacrifice sleep, whether it's due to work, social obligations, or other factors, your body keeps a record of that deficit.
Isabel Page, pediatric sleep coach, founder of Dubai-based organisation Savvy Sleep, had earlier explained to Gulf News, “You could be losing sleep due to several possible reasons, ranging from stressful workdays to a personal crisis. As a result, you’re trapped in a cycle of disrupted and unsatisfactory sleep. And, it keeps building up, till you’re unable to function.”
So, when you finally have a few extra hours to spare on the days off, your body tries to repay that debt, leading you to feel more tired than usual. As a result, you sleep in, on weekends. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to catch up on that extra sleep in just two days. So, as Page explains, we try to compensate by sleeping for a couple of extra hours, but it does not make up for the lack of rest during the week.
This sleep debt, combined with the stressful events of the week, takes a toll on our brain as well. As Zainab Moalla, a general physician at NeoHealth, Clinic Dubai explains, "Our body has a natural rhythm that helps to regulate our sleep, known as circadian rhythm. Sleeping in on weekends disturbs the body's internal clock, making it hard to fall asleep and wake up at regular times during the week. These inconsistent sleep schedules cause less restorative sleep, leaving you feeling less rested, even after a long night's sleep." Moreover, it impairs cognitive function, including memory, concentration and decision-making. "It affects your productivity and alertness during the day. You feel sluggish and unfocused," adds Moalla.
These inconsistent sleep schedules cause less restorative sleep, leaving you feeling less rested, even after a long night's rest. It impairs cognitive function, including memory, concentration and decision-making. You feel sluggish and unfocused...
When the brain takes a break
Farid Elazar, clinical psychologist at American Centre for Psychiatry and Neurology in Dubai, had explained earlier to Gulf News that non-stop activity can tire out the brain, which is why we wait for the weekend to recharge. “We all have a frontal lobe, which is housed above the eyes. This is the brain’s CPU (central processing unit), responsible for executive control and decision making whenever we perform a task,” he said. “When our minds are empty, doing nothing, we activate a family of brain regions called the default mode network, where our brain goes to take a vacation.”
Thinking, daydreaming and spacing out, all put the brain on rest mode. During this time, the CPU responsible for tasks is left idle. We might be spacing out, but this is also when the brain forms our memories so that we can remember the day’s events later. Downtime is important for a healthy mind. This sounds instructive, and yet we run the risk of entering a territory that’s fraught with overthinking. It becomes frightening to be alone with our thoughts, he says.
‘The mental kingdom of darkness’
Elazar continues, “There is a risk with a lack of frontal lobe activity, where we can enter what I call the mental kingdom of darkness. Our minds will travel to negative memories from our past or to the future, which can bring about negative emotions.”
We start dwelling on the past and the future, he explains. We brood and ruminate, which tires our brain out more, leading to impaired cognitive function and concentration.
Enter distractions
And so, some people try to sleep to escape from the thoughts, or mindlessly scroll through social media or watch television till midnight, which leaves us sluggish along with a disrupted sleep cycle.
However, as the day goes on, they feel more drained from consuming media. This happens because our brain needs active stimulation at some point, and these kind of activities don’t have to be ‘work’ for it to feel rewarding, explains Elazar. This lack of engagement can leave you feeling unfulfilled and drained.
So, how do we stop feeling so tired after weekends?
For starters, feeling constantly stressed and overstimulated during the work week could signal an impending burnout. Elizabeth Perry, a Dubai-based clinical psychologist, explains, “See how you can mend your situation at work. Look at what tasks can be delegated or redistributed. Work on building clear boundaries, so your stress levels can be kept under control.
“Practise breathwork, meditation or journaling to manage the increasing anxiety. See how you can supervise your screentime, and try to switch off at least an hour before you sleep. This can help in optimising your sleep during the week, which will in turn reduce your exhaustion on the days off.”
Another suggestion would be to keep your Netflix and scrolling through social media in moderation, advises Elazar.
Here are some tips:
Prioritise relaxation: Schedule downtime for activities you truly enjoy, whether it's reading, spending time in Nature, or simply taking a nap.
Plan activities well: Schedule activities that energise you, not drain you.
Limit screen time before bed: The blue light emitted from electronic devices can interfere with sleep. Avoid screens for at least an hour before bedtime.
Exercise regularly: Regular physical activity can improve sleep quality, but avoid strenuous exercise too close to bedtime.
With inputs from Sahar Ejaz, Special to Gulf News
