Stress Awareness Month: 66% of Irish workers say work is too demanding

Each week, as Sunday evening approaches, so too does the crippling dread about the workweek ahead. For Ireland, it’s triggering anxiety, disrupted sleep, spiralling thoughts and the sense that the weekend never fully allows us to switch off before Monday arrives again, as two-thirds reveal work to be “too demanding’.

Stress Awareness Month

New analysis conducted by neuromodulation company Parasym finds that Ireland is a population struggling with the ‘Sunday Scaries’ amid a backdrop of worsening workplace burnout.

The findings come at a time when Ireland already ranks the worst in the world for sleep, prompting questions over whether it could also be one of the most burnt-out nations, as two-thirds (66%) say work is too demanding and over half (56%) work overtime just to keep up.

Research shows the ‘Sunday Scaries’ or ‘The Glenroes’ as it’s sometimes called in Ireland, is extremely common, affecting three-quarters (75%) according to a comparative UK survey of 2,000 Monday to Friday workers. Common symptoms include overthinking (51%) and anxiety (51%), typically kicking in around 5.17pm on a Sunday evening.

What follows is disrupted sleep, tossing and turning over what the workweek ahead brings. In Ireland’s case, Parasym discovered that around 30% of adults in Ireland experience sleep difficulties regularly, with insomnia disorder affecting approximately 15% of Irish adults.

For nearly a third of workers (31%), this pattern occurs weekly, creating a recurring cycle of anticipatory stress before the working week even begins.

Today, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially recognises the Sunday Scaries, attributing the feeling to deeper, structural issues with modern workplace culture. The health risks associated are burdensome, with those working an excess of 55 or more hours a week at 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of death from ischemic heart disease, when compared to people who worked 35 to 40 hours a week.

In recent years, trends such as “quiet quitting” and “rage applying” have proliferated online, suggesting this weekly cycle of anxiety might be getting worse. So far in 2026, Ireland’s searches for ‘burnout’ are up 25% in the last quarter and since January 1st, Tiktok’s on ‘job burnout’ have amassed views of over 200k.

Ireland is an overworked nation

Despite Ireland’s introduction of the ‘right to disconnect’ in 2021, designed to give employees, whether in the office or working from home, the right to switch off and refuse work outside normal hours, the evidence shows that five years on, Ireland is a nation that’s still overworked, leading to burnout.

Recent research shows only a quarter of Irish professionals can stick to their ‘core’ office hours with 37% reporting that they either have to start earlier or finish later depending on workload, of which two-thirds (66%) describe as too demanding, and over half (56%) say they have to work over normal hours to catch up on work or meet deadlines.

With pressure building throughout the week, it’s no surprise that by Sunday evening many workers feel the strain mount up. In 2025, a survey of 1,000 employees in Ireland revealed that over a quarter (29%) said work negatively impacted their mental health which led to nearly one in four (24%) taking mental-health leave in the previous year, significantly higher than the European average of 18%.

But despite how widespread the issue is for workers of all ages, many people never seek formal support and many don’t have adequate coping mechanisms.

How nervous system support can help

Elisabetta Burchi, Head of Research at Parasym and Clinical Psychiatrist says: “The kind of weekly stress that the Sunday Scaries represents can lead to long-term health consequences that go beyond the psychological level. Prospective studies show that cumulative exposure to work-related stress significantly increases the risk of depression and anxiety disorders, and is also associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, musculoskeletal pain, and metabolic syndrome.”

Dr Burchi, continues: “When you notice the signs –  poor sleep, waking up  unrested, experiencing spiraling  thoughts and feeling overwhelmed all related to the anticipation of the beginning of a new week ahead –  acknowledge that it is something we should treat.”.”

One area attracting growing attention is vagus nerve stimulation, which targets the vagus nerve, a key regulator of the body’s stress response. Until recently, VNS was largely limited to clinical or surgical settings. Advances in wearable technology, such as Nurosym, have made non-invasive versions more accessible for at-home use, contributing to growing interest in nervous system regulation as part of everyday wellbeing.

The vagus nerve plays a critical role in managing stress, mood, cognitive function and inflammation. When vagal tone is low, resilience drops. When it’s supported, the body is better able to return to a state of balance.

According to Greta, Head of Science at Parasym: “Chronic stress disrupts the endocrine system by persistently activating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to prolonged elevation of cortisol and breakdown of normal hormonal feedback mechanisms. This imbalance interferes with other hormonal systems, including those regulating reproduction, thyroid function, and metabolism, effectively making stress a functional endocrine disruptor.”

Greta continues to discuss the effect over time and what to do to support our bodies through stress.

“Over time, stress drives inflammation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction while accelerating telomere shortening and altering gene expression through epigenetic changes. If you are exposed to constant stress the best thing that you can do for your longevity is to make changes in your life that reduce that load. But for some of us that’s not immediately possible and that’s where tools that can limit that damage and  help us cope and recover come extremely helpful”

Backed by more than 50 clinical studies, Nurosym is the most studied auricular vagus nerve stimulation device available, with no serious adverse effects reported to date. It works by using targeted electrical signals sent to the brain to modulate the nervous system, delivering clinically proven benefits for stress resilience and recovery.

And the clinical findings are promising. They show up to 35% reduction in anxiety, 48% reduction in fatigue, 31% improvement in sleep, 32% increase in memory recall, and a 67% increase in vagus nerve activity in just five minutes of stimulation.

“The real issue isn’t the Sunday night anxiety itself, but the modern work culture that has created it, and how little attention is given to recovery in modern working life.” Dr Burchi added.

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