We usually spend much of the year waiting for the holidays to arrive. When we are stressed at work, we try to relax by thinking about vacations and plan what we will do weeks or even months in advance. The prospect of those free days, without a fixed schedule and the ties of work, excites us. However, does it really make us as happy as we think? Psychologists question this.
Do we enjoy the planning more than the vacation itself?
A group of researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. To do this, they studied the happiness levels of 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period.
Research showed that anticipation of the holiday increased happiness for eight weeks. However, after the holidays, happiness quickly returned to baseline levels for most people. That is, the greatest boost to happiness comes from the act of planning the vacation, rather than from the days of rest themselves.
However, the level of stress or relaxation that we experience during those days off are also essential for happiness. Relaxing vacations generated a higher level of happiness during those days, but did not produce an increase in happiness after the trip. In these cases, the researchers found that people who had gone on vacation were not even happier than those who had not.
The only ones who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” during their vacation. However, even among those people, the effect of vacation happiness lasted only two weeks after the trip, then fell to initial levels.
The keys for vacations to increase our level of happiness
There is no doubt that vacations make us happy, but not in the way we assume. We are generally happier anticipating those days of rest or fun and planning the details of the vacation. In fact, previous studies have found that we are particularly inaccurate when predicting the emotions we will experience and their intensity because we tend to exaggerate the impact of situations – both positive and negative.
On the other hand, we are also victims of what is known as hedonic adaptation or habituation, a process through which we usually return to a stable level of happiness or satisfaction after experiencing positive changes. That’s one of the reasons why the effects of the vacation itself are so limited.
And when those days away from work are stressful or we don’t get enough rest, they don’t even bring us true happiness.
Therefore, if you want to take advantage of your vacation to feel better, make sure it is really relaxing. If you decide to travel to another destination, do not fill your days with activities that generate stress and add more fatigue to what you have already accumulated during the year. Make sure your brain goes into “vacation mode” and slows down so you can really unwind and feel better.
And since the study didn’t even find a relationship between vacation length and overall happiness, the researchers say we might get a lot more out of taking several shorter vacations throughout the year, rather than concentrating most of the days off in summer. It’s up to you!
Source:
Nawijn, J. et. Al. (2010) Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday. Applied Research Quality Life ; 5:35–47.
