2 Ways The 'Monday Blues' Impacts Your Stress Response

That heavy feeling about Monday isn't just a mood; it's a nervous system response that lingers long past the weekend.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | July 31, 2025

Many people experience anxiety and low moods at the start of the workweek.
It can feel like a dip in motivation or a sense of dread that creeps in as Monday approaches. This is often linked to the abrupt shift from rest to responsibility, and it's popularly known as the "Monday blues."

Often, these blues don't wait for Monday to arrive. You can also experience them creeping in on Sunday evening, just as the weekend is about to end. You might feel heaviness in your body, a growing irritability or a background hum of anxiety you can't quite place.

Over time, this has become a common lived experience and is now very normalized. But its impact runs far deeper than you may realize.

A 2025 study sheds light on how anxious Mondays can impact you, both psychologically and biologically, in ways that leave a measurable imprint on your body.

This large-scale study explored whether the emotional weight of Mondays could have a deeper physiological impact. Researchers used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and examined over 3,500 adults aged 50 and above.

The researchers asked participants how anxious they felt the day before and what day of the week it was. Then, up to two months later, they analyzed cortisol levels from hair samples. This is a reliable indicator of long-term stress hormone exposure. They found strong evidence of a "Monday effect."

Here are two ways your Monday anxiety could be harming you, based on the study.

1. Monday Anxiety Triggers Long-Term Biological Stress

No matter what day it strikes, anxiety can impact the body in significant ways.

When you feel anxious, the brain signals the body to activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis): your central stress-response system. This then leads to a release of cortisol, which is the body's primary stress hormone.

Cortisol helps you in responding to challenges in the short term. However, it's important to note that when it's chronically elevated, it can contribute to a range of health issues, such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance and immune suppression.

The study found that anxiety experienced specifically on Mondays may trigger a stronger and more lasting cortisol response than anxiety on any other day.

Among adults aged 50 and above, those who reported feeling anxious on a Monday had 23% higher cortisol levels based on their hair samples. Hair cortisol is a marker of long-term HPA-axis activity and offers insight into how stress builds up over weeks and months.

This means that the impact of Monday anxiety doesn't just fade with the day, but leaves a biological residue that persists long after.

More importantly, this effect wasn't seen in people who felt anxious on other days of the week. From Tuesday through Sunday, no significant association was found between anxiety and elevated cortisol.

The difference was also most significant in those at the higher end of the stress spectrum, which were individuals in the top 10% of the cortisol distribution. The Monday-anxiety link to HPA-axis dysregulation was strongest in this group.

This only goes to show that Monday anxiety can't be dismissed as just another emotional dip. It brings about real and measurable change in the body.

It's not just about how stressful one day feels, but about how that stress adds up over time. When the body starts to store the impact of these spikes, it starts becoming something that's etched deeper into your system. If Mondays keep feeling overwhelming, maybe it's a sign that your body's been carrying more than you thought.

2. Monday Anxiety Becomes A Habit Your Body Holds Onto

It's natural to assume that Monday anxiety is just about work, the pressure of meetings, deadlines or getting back into a routine. While this may be partly true, the 2025 suggests there's likely more to this anxiety.

The researchers found that the impact of Monday anxiety on stress hormones was just as strong in older adults who were no longer working. There was no difference in cortisol patterns between working and non-working individuals. This means the body's stress response to Monday anxiety persisted, even when work was no longer part of the equation.

Over time, Monday anxiety can become conditioned — something the body learns to anticipate regardless of the actual circumstances. This is because, after years of starting the week under pressure, your stress system might still brace itself every Monday, even if your schedule has changed.

So even in retirement or during a career break, your body might still go into "alert mode" at the start of the week, as a result of a learned biological rhythm that your nervous system may carry with it unless consciously unlearned.

Not all stress is rooted in a real or present threat; some of it is simply remembered.

When patterns like Monday anxiety become ingrained, the stress response can operate in the background, where it subtly impacts how your body feels week after week.

Unless you become aware of it, you run the risk of carrying stress responses that no longer serve you, simply because your body never got the signal that it's safe to let go.

In light of this, it's worth remembering that even when you feel anxious, your body isn't working against you, but only trying to protect you by preparing for the perceived threat. It just doesn't always know if that threat is real or remembered.

The more you notice these automatic responses, the more you can gently begin to interrupt them. Perhaps this could begin with changing the way you approach Mondays. Consistently affirm to yourself that you can handle what's ahead. You don't need to brace for impact. You just need to ease into the week in ways that feel supportive and not stressful.

Create A Softer Start To Your Week

A lot of the anxiety you carry on Mondays can be softened by how you treat Sunday. The goal should be to create little cues of safety that your body can start to trust.

Here are a few simple ways to support your body and mind before Monday hits:

• Make Sunday evenings restorative. Try to avoid cramming errands, intense planning or doomscrolling right before bed. Instead, use this time to wind down maybe by stretching, reading, journaling or even doing a quick emotional check-in.
• Prep small things in advance. Laying out your clothes, prepping breakfast or making a short to-do list for Monday morning can reduce that last-minute rush. This can help your system feel more in control.
• Set a consistent wind-down time. Going to bed at the same time on Sunday (and, ideally, most nights) helps regulate your cortisol. Poor sleep is one of the fastest ways to spike stress hormones the next day.
• Reframe the start of the week. Instead of dreading Monday, try giving yourself something small to look forward to. This could be a nice coffee, a walk, a playlist or calling a friend. Positive anticipation helps buffer anxiety.
• Do a quick body-based reset in the morning. Even 3–5 minutes of deep breathing, light movement or simply sitting in silence can help your nervous system regulate and break the "Monday equals panic" loop.

Small shifts on Sunday can send a powerful signal to your body that the week doesn't have to start in survival mode. It can start with intention and a sense of control with a little conscious effort on your end to make that shift. Slowly and steadily, you can help your body unlearn older stress responses and embrace a new baseline of safety.

Curious how your emotional state holds up through the week? Take this science-backed test to find out: WHO-5 Well-Being Index

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.