Why East Coast Workers are Blurry Eyed on Monday Morning

Take a good look at the list below. What do all these events, listed in reverse order of occurrence, have in common? The answer: they all occur on Sunday evening. 

* Jan 07 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards

* Jan 14 Miss America Finals, NFL Wildcard Playoffs

* Jan 21 NFL Divisional Playoffs

* Jan 28 NFL Playoffs Conference Championship

* Feb 04 Grammys, NFL Pro Bowl

* Feb 11 Superbowl

* Feb 18 NBA All-Star Game

* Mar 10 Academy Awards

* Mar 17 Selection Sunday 

* Mar 24 March Madness, round two

* Mar 31 March Madness, round four

* Apr 07 NCAA Women's Final Four

* Apr 14 Masters Golf Finale 

* Apr 21 NBA first round playoffs

* May 05 NBA Conference Semi-finals

* May 19 NBA Conference season finals

* May 26 National Memorial Day Concert

* Jun 09 NBA Finals, 2nd game

* Jun 16 Tony Awards

* Nov 17 Billboard Music Awards

As much as we'd like to think that Sunday is the most relaxing day of the week, too often, for much of the U.S. population, some late-night television event captures our attention and renders us blurry eyed for the next day. 

Some television networks, such as HBO, have a predisposition to air new episodes of recurring shows on Sunday evenings. Sunday nights are also considered prime time for sports such as football and basketball.  

Problematic?

If you live in the Pacific time zone, the vast array of specialized television events on Sunday evening is not problematic, as most events start at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. and end between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Mountain time residents benefit nearly the same as Pacific time zone residents. 

If you live in the Eastern time zone, you're in trouble because most events start at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. and many end far later than 11pm. Those in the Central time zone enjoy a one-hour earlier end to such events, which is often enough to avoid the issue addressed here.

The obvious solutions are to either rest up on Sunday with a long nap, so that you can stay up late to watch the shows to their conclusion and not head in to work the next day blurry-eyed, or limit yourself to watching half of a show, pause it, and finish watching it the next day.