Opinion The Third Edit: Thank God it’s Monday

In classrooms across India and the world, repeated ad infinitum by teachers fond of cliches, a proverb adorns blackboards, walls and notice boards: “An idle mind,” generations have been told, “is the devil’s workshop.” In 2025, researchers from University College London (UCL) have all but added a corollary. Apart from finding that “it is always better in the morning”, the study suggests counterintuitively that most people are actually unhappier on the weekends than during weekdays.

The study, published in BMJ Mental Health, looked at responses from over 50,000 adults gathered between March 2020 and 2022 to find patterns in how mental health fluctuates over time and seasons. Broadly speaking (there is variation at the individual level), it appears that the idle mind is more prone to issues than a busy one. The morning, as the work day looms, isn’t the cause of dread so much as evenings. In fact, what may appear to be the most insurmountable of problems in the evening can come into perspective after a good night’s sleep. And the weekend comes with its own responsibilities.

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The idle mind may not quite be the Airbnb for Mephistopheles as was once thought, but it turns out that structures can sometimes be helpful, if only as a distraction. The weekday, for all the hassles of work, has a set pattern to it. The weekend demands more, and “relaxing” may just be a reminder of how empty life can seem — that mystical sense of ennui that inspired and depressed so many, from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Albert Camus. Perhaps the respondents in the UCL study had such a hard time with free time because it’s so rare, today. In any case, people are unlikely to “thank god it’s Monday”.