Think Happy!

According to a report by Expedia.com, Americans got the least amount of vacation days per year among the countries surveyed, averaging only 14 days, compared to:

• 24 days in Great Britain
• 26 days in Germany
• 30 days in Spain
• 36 days in France.

Not only do Americans get a meager amount of vacation time, they also tend not to use it all!

‘And despite reporting an average of 14 vacation days this year, compared with 12 days in 2005, 35% of the more than 4,100 U.S. adults questioned said they will not use all of their time off, leaving an average of three days on the table.’

Reasons for not taking all of one’s allotted holiday time include, fears over job security, a push to “get the job done”, plus the perception that going on holiday is more stressful than staying at work!

Workaholic? Get away!
It’s not clear whether vacations cause better health or whether they are just an indicator of healthier lifestyles, but taking time off does appear to have physical and mental benefits. A 2005 study that analyzed research on 1,500 Wisconsin women showed that those who took vacations more frequently were less likely to become tense or depressed. Those women also reported being more satisfied with their marriages.

Cathy McCarty, the study’s principal investigator and a senior epidemiologist for the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, says vacations help ease tension, which can lead to depression. Not taking a break also seemed to indicate that women were not spending time focusing on their marriages.

Even worse, the findings showed that nearly one in five women in the study reported taking a vacation only once in six years.

“It’s the whole work culture,” McCarty says. “Even people who have worked for me come to me with this tone of, ‘I’m sorry, but do you mind if I take a day off?’ I tell them to go–it’s better for their health.”

The data are damning for workaholic men, too.

A 2000 analysis of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, a study of more than 12,000 men ages 35 to 57 at high-risk for coronary heart disease, showed that those who took regular annual vacations had a lower risk of death than those who skipped taking time off.

HT: Forbes.com