--- title: "How to reduce stress at work: find the quiet hours in a loud week" description: "How to reduce stress at work in the UAE: find the quiet hours already in your week, protect a few, take short breaks and slow your breathing. Eight steps." canonical: https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/find-the-quiet-hours/ published: 2026-07-10 updated: 2026-09-29 language: en --- # How to reduce stress at work: find the quiet hours in a loud week To reduce stress at work, start by finding the hours in your week that are already quiet, then protect a few of them. Keep a simple record for one week, move one loud task, take short breaks between tasks and slow your breathing for a few minutes. The aim is not a calm day, every day. - WHO describes stress as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation; a little helps, a lot for a long time does not. - A week of simple notes, or readings against your own normal, shows where the loud and quiet hours fall. - Short breaks between tasks, slower breathing and moving one loud task are small changes backed by research. - Burn-out is a work phenomenon in WHO's classification, not a diagnosis; persistent exhaustion is a reason to talk to a doctor. ## How do you reduce stress at work when the week is loud? Most advice on how to reduce stress at work asks you to add something: a new habit, a new app, a new routine. This guide starts somewhere else. Every week, even a loud one, already has quiet hours in it. The first job is to find them. The second is to protect a few. The point is not to make every hour calm. Meetings, deadlines and a hard drive home are part of working life. What wears people down is a week with no quiet hours left at all. ## What does stress do to the body? The World Health Organization describes stress as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. WHO is clear that a little stress helps us get through daily tasks. The trouble starts when it is heavy and does not ease. WHO lists the ways stress tends to show itself: - difficulty relaxing or concentrating - irritability and anxiety - headaches and other body aches - an upset stomach, changes in appetite, and trouble sleeping - more alcohol, tobacco or other substances to get through the day Stress also shows in the heart. Heart rate variability, or HRV, is the small change in time between one heartbeat and the next. A 2018 meta-analysis of 37 studies in Psychiatry Investigation found that HRV changed in response to stress in most of them, most often with lower activity on the parasympathetic side, the part of the nervous system that governs rest. Our guide to [reading your resting heart over time](https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/listen-to-your-resting-heart/) explains why one reading says little and a trend says more, and our guide to [a normal resting heart rate](https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/normal-resting-heart-rate/) shows how stress and sleep move the resting rate too. ## What are the signs of burnout? Burn-out is the word for what can happen when work stress goes on for too long. In its 2019 update to the International Classification of Diseases, ICD-11, WHO defined it as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. WHO names three signs: 1. Feeling depleted of energy, or exhausted. 2. Growing mental distance from your job, or feeling negative or cynical about it. 3. Feeling less effective at work. WHO classes burn-out as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition, and uses the term only for work. That matters, because the same exhaustion can have other causes. If it has lasted for weeks, a doctor is the right person to talk to. ## How to find the quiet hours in your week These eight steps take about a week to set up. None of them needs new equipment, although a wearable can make the first two easier. 1. **Keep a simple record for one week.** Note, three or four times a day, how tense or settled you feel, and what you were doing. A working week plus the weekend shows every kind of day you have. If you wear Sisly, it reads stress against your own normal, which does much of the noting for you. 2. **Mark the loud hours and the quiet ones.** At the end of the week, circle the times that were consistently tense and the times that were consistently calm. For many people a week has a shape: perhaps a heavy Monday morning, a slump after lunch, a quiet early evening. 3. **Protect one quiet hour a day.** Put it in your calendar as you would a meeting. Use it for the work that needs thought, or for nothing at all. 4. **Move one loud thing.** Take one call standing up or walking. Shift one meeting away from your most tense hour. Change one thing at a time, so you can see what it did. 5. **Take short breaks between tasks.** A 2022 meta-analysis in PLOS ONE pooled 22 study samples and found that micro-breaks, short pauses between tasks, gave a small but statistically significant lift in energy and a small drop in fatigue. 6. **Slow your breathing for a few minutes.** A 2018 systematic review in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that breathing slower than 10 breaths a minute was linked with higher HRV and with people feeling more relaxed and less anxious. 7. **Put movement in the cooler hours.** WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week for adults and notes that it reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression. In a UAE summer, a walk before work or after sunset is easier to keep than one at noon. 8. **Close the evening.** Set a time after which the laptop stays shut. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend at least 7 hours of sleep a night for adults, and a hard stop to the working day protects it. ## What makes work stress different in the UAE? Three things shape a working week here. **The heat.** From 15 June to 15 September, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation stops outdoor work in direct sun between 12:30 and 3:00 in the afternoon, as Gulf Business reported for 2026. Office workers feel the same heat on the walk to the car. In summer the quiet hours tend to move to the early morning and late evening. Our piece on [what 46 degrees does to you](https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/what-46-degrees-does-to-you/) covers the body's side of that. **The calendar.** The working week, Ramadan hours and the long holiday weekends change the shape of a week several times a year. A pattern you found in March may not hold in July. Repeat the one-week record when the season changes. **The mix of people.** Many teams work across time zones and languages. Calls early in the morning or late at night are often where the loud hours come from. ## What are the common mistakes? - **Trying to make every hour calm.** A week with some loud hours is normal. The aim is enough quiet ones. - **Reading one day.** One bad Tuesday says little. A pattern over a week says more. - **Changing everything at once.** If you change five things, you will not know which one helped. - **Saving all the rest for the weekend.** Two quiet days do not make up for five with no quiet hours in them. ## When should you see a doctor? Speak to a doctor if stress is affecting your sleep, appetite, mood or concentration for weeks, if you feel unable to cope, or if you notice you are relying on alcohol, tobacco or other substances to get through. WHO lists these among the ways stress shows itself, and some of them have causes other than work. If you ever feel chest pain, faintness or a racing heart that does not settle, seek medical help straight away. ## What can an employer do? A lot of work stress sits outside any one person's control. The WHO fact sheet on mental health at work lists long, unsocial or inflexible hours, heavy workloads and a lack of control over how work is done among the risks to mental health at work. WHO estimates that 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety worldwide. WHO points employers towards changing working conditions, training managers and making support easy to reach. For a Gulf summer, our article on [wellbeing at work through a Gulf summer](https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/wellbeing-at-work-gulf-summer/) goes into the practical side, and more on the heart and stress is gathered in our [heart and stress](https://www.sisly.ai/en/blog/heart-and-stress/) section. ## Where does Sisly fit? Sisly is a titanium ring or band that reads sleep, energy, stress, heart rate variability, activity and skin temperature against your own normal. It is AED 999, paid once, with no subscription, and a charge lasts about 7 days. It will not tell you how to run your week. It shows you where the quiet hours already are. ## FAQ **How can I reduce stress at work quickly?** Step away from the task for a few minutes and slow your breathing. A 2018 systematic review in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that breathing slower than 10 breaths a minute was linked with higher heart rate variability and more relaxation. A 2022 meta-analysis in PLOS ONE found short breaks between tasks gave a small lift in energy and a small drop in fatigue. **What are the signs of burnout?** WHO describes burn-out in its ICD-11 classification through three signs: feeling depleted or exhausted, growing mental distance from your job or cynicism about it, and feeling less effective at work. WHO calls it an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition, and uses it only for work. If these feelings last for weeks, speak to a doctor. **How does the UAE summer change a working day?** From 15 June to 15 September, UAE law stops outdoor work in direct sun between 12:30 and 3:00 in the afternoon, a rule set by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. Even for office workers, the hottest hours push walks, errands and exercise to the early morning or late evening, so the quiet hours of the day tend to move with the season. **Does stress show up in heart rate variability?** Often, yes. Heart rate variability, or HRV, is the small change in time between one heartbeat and the next. A 2018 meta-analysis of 37 studies in Psychiatry Investigation found HRV changed in response to stress in most of them, usually with lower parasympathetic activity, the rest side of the nervous system. One reading on its own says little; a pattern says more. **How long should I keep a stress log before changing anything?** One working week plus the weekend is usually enough to see a shape, because it covers every kind of day you have: meeting days, desk days, commute days and rest days. A single day can mislead, since one late meeting or one hot afternoon can colour it. Change one thing after the first week, then watch the next. **When should I see a doctor about stress at work?** Speak to a doctor if stress is affecting your sleep, appetite, mood or concentration for weeks, if you feel unable to cope, or if you are using alcohol or other substances to get through the day. WHO lists these among the ways stress shows itself. A doctor can help you find the right support, and your employer may offer confidential help too.