We’ve all been there. It’s the night before we’re due to submit a big project at work, and we’re so far from completing it that the finish line isn’t even in sight. It’s that old Sunday-night-homework sensation multiplied by 10: a sinking feeling of dread accompanied by panicky contractions in your chest, with a handy dose of cold sweat thrown in for good measure.

Inevitably, you end up running through all the possible outcomes if – as you strongly suspect will be the case – you don’t manage to get everything done on time. You’ll definitely get in trouble with your boss; hey, you might even get fired! And from that hypothetical scenario, the terrible possibilities are virtually limitless.

While you might feel like the only person who really struggles with deadlines in adulthood, that’s certainly not the case. According to a survey on workplace stress by jobs site CareerCast, most people (38%) see deadlines as their biggest source of professional anxiety. An earlier edition of CareerCast’s Stressful Jobs Reader Survey found that more people were afraid of deadlines than they were of actually dying at work.

But why are deadlines so stressful? It’s worth noting, of course, that some people don’t find them anxiety-inducing at all (you know the type – they like to talk about how they “thrive under pressure”). However, there are psychological and physiological reasons that the thought of deadlines makes so many of us break out into a cold sweat. Researchers have long theorised that people with classic ‘Type A’ personality traits – such as being ambitious, rigidly organised, sensitive and impatient – also tend to find time management more anxiety-inducing.

6 ways to deal with deadline stress, according to a time management coach