How our lives are set up here in Singapore has a role to play.

First, it is near impossible for one to go ‘underground’ or out of reach on our little island. In a physically and virtually hyperconnected city such as ours, finding a good excuse to avoid or turn down both professional and social obligations is difficult.

Most of us are always on standby, replying to every text and answering every call until there is no time left for ourselves.

Second, we don’t have an ingrained culture of protecting our downtime here in Singapore. Throughout my years spent working in Australia, my colleagues were often dismayed when I had nothing notable to share on Monday mornings in terms of what I’d got up to that weekend.  Mindlessly watching TV at home was not acceptable; working through the weekend was not something you would brag about, either.

In Singapore, it is common to expect desk-bound employees to start “clearing” emails on Sunday nights so they can hit the ground running on Monday mornings. Furthermore, many small businesses and organisations still have a five-and-a-half-day work week.

During his election campaign, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam acknowledged that we need to have shorter work weeks and that Singaporeans need more free time.

Finally, many of us have also developed poor habits around our Internet-enabled devices which hinder sleep. These include an unhealthy addiction to social media, which leads some to replace snoozing with ‘doomscrolling’.

A lack of boundaries, long hours at work, and excessive use of social media platforms have all contributed to a highly stressed-out society with poor mental health.