National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day

Are you sitting at work in your PJ’s today?

Evidently today is National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day . . . or at least it used to be. Best I can figure, the day of celebration began with PajamaGram’s 2004 initiative to promote PJ’s. The Vermont Teddy Bear’s PJ gift-giving website still houses a Press Release from 2005. And PajamaCity, the purveyor of the footed pajamas you wore as a kid, has an entire website devoted to the celebration of National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day at NationalWearYourPajamasToWorkToday.com. They’ve left this undated Press Release up since, well, since they created the site in 2005 I suspect.

However the unofficial holiday got its start, it’s no mistake that the 16th of April was chosen. It is, after all, the day after your taxes are due here in the U.S. and April 16th is, as deemed by the Health Resource Network in 1992, National Stress Awareness Day. In fact, the entire month of April is designated as Stress Awareness Month.

The Health Resource Network is a non-profit health education organization established in 1982. It consists of health professionals, health promotion experts, and educators committed to developing more effective programs for improving health and preventing disease. In addition to sponsoring Stress Awareness Month, the organization also sponsors National Stress Awareness Day, held every April 16–or the day after income taxes are due!
http://www.stresscure.com/hrn/april.html

According to the American Psychological Association, “While low to moderate levels of stress can be good for you when managed in healthy ways, extreme stress takes both an emotional and physical toll on the individual.” That’s not exactly a shocker. But consider these numbers:

• One-third of people in the U.S. report experiencing extreme levels of stress. (2007 APA poll)
• Nearly one-in-five people in the U.S. report that they are experiencing higher levels of stress 15 or more days per month. (2007 APA poll)
• Eighty-seven percent of women reported dramatic increases in stress associated with health problems affecting their families in relationship to the declining economy. (2008 APA poll)

So the whole idea behind National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day (too bad there’s not a good acronym for that) is that going to work in your PJ’s lessens your stress. Overall, I’d have to agree with the premise, though if no one else at your office is celebrating the day, it might actually increase your stress level. And if you have to go out shopping for a nice, neat, new pair of work-appropriate PJ’s, it may increase or decrease your stress level depending on how you feel about shopping.

Working in PJ’s is nothing new to me, it’s actually how I begin most of my days (including weekdays since last November when my husband began taking the kids to school every morning). While I’m not sure how long that nicety will last, it’s comforting to know that – at least for the time-being – my stress levels might be lower than usual. Then again, I’m never exactly dressed to the nines when I’m sitting at my desk.

So if you donned the fancy suit before going to work this morning, definitely mark your calendar for next year . . . though National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day may be celebrated on Monday, April 18th in 2011 since the 16th falls on a Saturday.

And if you’re working from home, like me, be grateful that every day can be Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day, if that’s what you feel like doing.

For a fun look at information on pajamas, fashion, casual Fridays and fashion-based mutual funds, take a peek at The Pajamas Fashion Primer by David Leonhardt (the self-acclaimed Happy Guy).