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Why vacations are important for your health



Haven’t had a vacation in a year, or more? It could be bad for your mental and physical health. The Quartz journal selected several studies that show that it’s time to take a break (Quartz, September 5, 2015).

A 1991 longitudinal study that commenced in 1948, called the Farmingham study, showed that non-working women who took vacation only once every six years or longer had nearly twice the risk of developing a fatal heart disease and heart attacks than women who took vacations at least twice a year. A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology assessed 50 years of research and found that a 10-hour or more workday increased the risk of coronary heart risk by 80% for both men and women.

In a 2012 study by the Centre of Expertise for Work Organizations at the Institute of Occupational Health in Finland, using the Whitehall II database of British public servants, mental health issues were examined. Researchers found that people who worked more than 11 hours a day were more than twice as likely to have a major depressive episode than people who worked 7-8 hours a day. This was likely even in people who had no prior mental health issues. The Swedish Uppsala University conducted a study in 2013 on the impact of vacations on mental health. They used data on the sale of anti-depressants. They found a small but ‘practically significant’ relationship between more people taking vacations and fewer anti-depressant drugs sold.

A 2012 University of California study gave two groups of participants the same problem. One group was given a short break during the task, while the other group was required to work until the task was completed. Researchers found that participants that had a short break showed an increase in creative solutions to the problem.

The Institute of Occupational Health in Finland showed in 2008 that people who worked a 55-hour work week had lower cognitive function, including poor vocabulary and reasoning, than people who worked a 40-hour work week.

It was also found that the short-term benefits of vacations disappear quickly – as quickly as a week or less after the holiday, people’s stress levels rose. Research from the University of Tampere in Finland confirmed the short-term effects of holidays, but added that the collective or cumulative effect of holidays over time was vital to good health.


http://qz.com/485226/this-is-what-365-days-without-a-vacation-does-to-your-health/ 
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