'Monday morning blues' are a figment of imagination

Melbourne, July 1 : Just the thought of waking up for work on a Monday morning scares most of us, thanks to the blues accompanied by the starting day of the week, but according to a group of researchers, there's no such thing as 'Monday morning blues', in fact they're a figment of our imagination. The research reveals that we are just as happy at the beginning of the week as we are at the end.

Studies by University of Sydney psychologists have found that with foresight and hindsight people dread Monday mornings the most and love Friday evenings more than any other time.

But a closer look at daily mood shows there is actually very little variation in our happiness levels over a week.

"We found that the Monday morning blues and Thank God It's Friday are largely inaccurate theories of how moods vary when they actually don't," News.com.au quoted lead researcher Professor Charles Areni, as saying.

"Mondays are not actually blue at all, but we persist in the belief that they are," Areni added.

The research team collected mood information from hundreds of Sydneysiders, asking them for their worst and best morning and evening of the week.

Another study tracked their actual mood day by day, with the results compared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

"As it turned out, the real low point of the week we found was Wednesday, not Monday, and that mood change was only slight," Areni said.

He said the day-of-the-week stereotypes stemmed from a cultural belief that people were generally happier when they were free to choose their activities compared to when they were sitting at a desk.

"Monday morning is remembered and predicted to be the worst part of the week because it is the first work day after two days of free time, and because four work days follow before the next period of free time," he said.

"Likewise, Friday evening is the best part of the week because it marks the beginning of an extended period of free time," he added.

He said the finding was linked to a growing body of research that said humans may overvalue choice.

ANI