Blue Monday is just a marketing hoax dressed up as science — here’s why your mood isn’t determined by a bogus equation.
- Blue Monday has zero scientific basis and was created as part of a 2005 travel ad campaign.
- The equation that defines it combines incompatible variables like weather and debt, with no mathematical logic.
- The scientific community and the Mental Health Foundation have repeatedly debunked the idea of a “saddest day of the year.”
- Believing in Blue Monday can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, dragging down your mood for no real reason.
- Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) are serious conditions that don’t follow a calendar date.
- The best way to push back? Ignore the hype and go for a run — real endorphins beat fake science.
Blue Monday Doesn’t Exist: Science vs. the “Saddest Day of the Year”
If you woke up today feeling a mysterious weight on your chest, like it’s contractually required to be down in the dumps — pause for a second. Breathe. The universe isn’t out to get you, and it’s not a cosmic alignment gone wrong. More likely, you’re experiencing the effects — knowingly or not — of one of the biggest collective mind tricks of the past two decades: Blue Monday.
Today, January 19, 2026, the news and your social feeds will try to convince you that you’re sad. That it’s statistically inevitable. The truth? Your coffee tastes the same as yesterday, and your legs feel just as ready (or unready) to move as they always do. Let’s take this myth apart, piece by piece, because sadness shouldn’t be a date circled on your calendar.
Feeling Down Today? It’s Probably Just Suggestion (and Marketing)
The human brain is a marvelous machine — but it has a glitch: it tends to find what it’s looking for. Psychologists call it a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” If you wake up convinced your day will suck “because science says so,” then every red light, rude email, and puddle becomes proof that you were right.
That’s exactly how Blue Monday works. It’s a global-scale nocebo effect. You’re told you’re supposed to feel gloomy, and you, just to be safe, comply. But the only thing that makes this Monday any different is the label we’ve slapped on it. Remove the label, and it’s just another Monday in January. And let’s be real — January Mondays can be cold and dark, but they can also be the day you start training for your next marathon. Or just the day you eat an amazing pizza. It’s up to you — not the date.
The Myth’s Origin Story: A 2005 Press Release, Not a Clinical Study
Let’s rewind to 2005. Smartphones as we know them don’t exist yet, and social media is barely a thing. A British TV channel, Sky Travel, faces a practical issue: in January, no one’s booking vacations. Everyone’s broke after the holidays, and summer feels a century away.
The PR agency working with them has a clever idea: invent a scientific reason why people feel low right now — while subtly suggesting that booking a trip is the cure. They contact Cliff Arnall, then a tutor at Cardiff University, who signs off on a formula. The press release goes out, news outlets bite because it’s a “quirky” story, and boom: the myth is born. No studies. No population sampling. No analysis of cortisol or serotonin levels. Just the need to sell airline tickets.
Why the Blue Monday Equation Is Mathematical Nonsense
Here’s the original equation:
\[\frac{[W + (D-d)] \times T^Q}{M \times N_a}\]
Looks legit, right? Letters, parentheses, fractions — must be science. Except, to use the technical term: it’s nonsense.
Let’s break it down: \(W\) stands for Weather, \(D\) for Debt, \(d\) for monthly salary, \(T\) for time since Christmas, \(Q\) for time since New Year’s resolutions failed, \(M\) for motivation level, and \(N_a\) for the need to take action.
Now ask yourself: how do you multiply “time since Christmas” by “weather”? What’s the unit of measurement for “need to take action”? It’s like trying to calculate your pace per mile by multiplying your shoe size by the temperature of the pavement. Mathematically, it’s nonsense. The variables aren’t measurable in a coherent way and have no proven causal links. It’s a formula that exists solely to give fake credibility to a fake idea.
What Real Science Says: Depression Doesn’t Follow a Calendar
Let’s get serious for a second, because mental health isn’t a punchline. Respected neuroscientists like Dean Burnett and organizations like the UK’s Mental Health Foundation have been pushing back against Blue Monday for years. And for good reason: it trivializes depression.
Saying there’s a day when “everyone is depressed” insults people who live with clinical depression or anxiety disorders 365 days a year.
Yes, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is real — a form of depression linked to changing seasons and reduced sunlight. But it’s a complex clinical condition, not some spell that hits on the third Monday of January and magically vanishes on Tuesday. Sadness is a valid, necessary human emotion. It doesn’t follow a marketing algorithm.
How to Turn Today Into an Energetic Monday (By Ditching the Trend)
So what do you do with this Monday? The most punk thing you can do to marketing? Use it. Flip the script. Don’t let forced sadness call the shots.
You don’t have to do anything huge. You don’t have to be endlessly cheerful (toxic positivity can be just as harmful as Blue Monday), but you can take action with your body to support your mind.
If you read our piece on Post Christmas Blues, you already know movement is one of the most powerful natural remedies we have. Go for a run. Or a walk. Not to “burn off the panettone,” but to activate the biochemistry that no made-up formula can take away.
Feel the cold air on your face, listen to your footsteps. That spark of vitality, that heat that shows up around minute ten — that’s the scientific proof your well-being is in your hands (and your legs), not in a 20-year-old press release.
Happy Monday. Any old, beautiful, Monday.