Two in three Irish workers arrive home drained every week, working stress

Irish workers may be losing more than time to the daily commute, with new research suggesting the strain of the working day can continue long after they arrive home.

The findings come as a new report highlights Dublin’s worsening congestion, with drivers estimated to have lost an average of 95 hours to traffic in 2025.

Now, a national survey commissioned by Nurosym has revealed the less visible time workers lose afterwards: the period spent trying to stop thinking about work, recover from the journey and feel fully relaxed at home.

Working stress

The survey found:

More than two-thirds (68%) arrive home drained at least weekly

More than half (56%) take an hour or longer to relax

More than four in five (82%) check work messages after hours

Dr Elisabetta Burchi, Head of Research at Nurosym, describes this period between arriving home and genuinely feeling relaxed as a “hidden stress window”.

“Commuting is usually quantified as time lost, but from a physiological standpoint, it is better understood as one contributor to a sustained allostatic load.

“Urban environments impose near-continuous demand on the autonomic nervous system; noise, crowding, artificial light, and the vigilance required by unpredictable conditions all recruit sympathetic activity.

“When a congested journey follows a cognitively demanding day, these inputs summate rather than resolve. The result is that sympathetic tone can remain elevated after arrival home, with the parasympathetic recovery that would normally follow a stressor delayed or incomplete.”

Dublin workers are Ireland’s most likely to arrive home drained

The problem appears particularly pronounced in Dublin, where nearly three-quarters (73%) of workers arrive home feeling stressed or mentally drained at least once a week.

This was followed by the South-West at 71%, the Border and Midland regions at 68%, and the West at 67%.

Workers in Dublin were also among the most digitally connected after hours. Nearly nine in ten (87%) check work emails or messages outside their normal working hours, including four in ten (41%) who do so every day.

One in five (20%) Dublin respondents said their commute makes it more difficult to unwind, compared with one in six (16%) nationally. Similar results were recorded in the Mid-East, at 21%, and the South-East, at 20%.

The findings come against Ireland’s continued reliance on car travel. The latest Census commuting figures show nearly two-thirds (63%) of people travel to work by car, while the average journey takes 29 minutes.

Why getting home does not mean the body has switched off

A busy journey home requires ongoing concentration. Drivers must watch other road users, respond to delays and make rapid decisions when conditions change.

“In a well-regulated system, a stressor elicits a transient sympathetic response, after which parasympathetic activity,  largely vagally mediated, restores a lower-arousal baseline.

“Autonomic flexibility of this kind is measurable, for instance, through heart rate variability. The difficulty in contemporary daily life is that discrete stressors are increasingly continuous: a demanding day, a congested commute, after-hours notifications and evening screen exposure arrive in sequence with no intervening recovery.

“Under these conditions, sympathetic activation is sustained, and the expected parasympathetic rebound is attenuated.”

Almost a third (32%) of workers surveyed said thoughts about work make it harder to unwind, while more than a third (35%) pointed to excessive screen time.

Arriving home also marks the beginning of another period of activity for many. Almost one in five (17%) immediately begin household chores, and almost one in five (19%) reach for their phone. One in six (16%) first sit quietly or take time to relax.

Women take longer to unwind, while men remain more connected to work

The research reveals different pressures affecting men and women at the end of the working day.

Three in five (60%) working women take at least an hour to feel fully relaxed, compared with more than half (53%) of men.

Women are also almost three times as likely to begin household chores as soon as they arrive home, at 26% compared with 9% of men.

Men, however, are more likely to remain connected to their jobs. 85% check work messages outside their normal hours, compared with 78% of women, with two in five (40%) men doing so every day.

“These demands differ in nature and should not be treated as equivalent and meaning matters physiologically, since a task experienced as purposeful provokes a different autonomic response from one experienced as depleting.

“Where a demand does elicit a genuine stress response, what determines recovery is less the stressor itself than whether an adequate interval follows it, in which vagal tone can rise and arousal return towards baseline. When successive stressors leave no such interval, that recovery is curtailed, whatever the source.”

Creating a consistent transition between work and home can help signal to the body that the demands of the day have ended. Dr Burchi recommends five simple ways to support the nervous system’s shift into recovery:

Create a clear end to the working day

“Where you can, deal with final messages before the journey home, then switch off work notifications for the evening. After-hours checking keeps attention oriented to the next task and delays the point at which arousal can begin to subside.”

Build in a short buffer

“Try not to move straight from the commute into other commitments. Even five or ten quiet minutes creates the recovery interval that allows autonomic activity to settle before the next demand begins.”

Slow down your breathing

“Slow and controlled breathing, particularly with a longer exhale, can help the body move away from a heightened state of alert. Wait until you are safely home rather than trying breathing exercises while driving.”

Use movement to release the day

“A short walk or gentle stretching can create a physical transition out of work mode. This may be particularly helpful for people who have spent much of their day sitting at a desk or in a car.”

Support the vagus nerve

“The vagus nerve is a key effector of the ‘rest and recover’ state. Controlled breathing, gentle movement, and time away from digital stimulation can all support this transition.

“Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation may also help support autonomic nervous system regulation. Nurosym stimulates the auricular branch of the vagus nerve through the ear and is designed to be easily used on demand during periods of rest.”

Dr Burchi added, “The answer is not to create another demanding routine. It is to give the nervous system a clear and consistent signal that the pressures of the working day have ended.”

The research was conducted on behalf of Nurosym on 8th July of 1,000 adults in Ireland.

Full survey results can be found here.

Sources:

Dublin drivers losing an average of 95 hours to congestion in 2025: INRIX 2025 Dublin Traffic Scorecard

Nearly two-thirds (63%) commuting by car and an average journey time of 29.1 minutes: Central Statistics Office – Census 2022 commuting data

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