The Nuance
How to Actually Relax on Your Next Vacation
Time off can be stressful, but there are ways to optimize your holidays
Every week, the Nuance will go beyond the basics, offering a deep and researched look at the latest science and expert insights on a buzzed-about health topic.
The airport was a nightmare, and your hotel isn’t as nice as you’d hoped. You’re doing your best to relax, but your mind is adding up all the money you’ve spent — and emails from work are piling up in your inbox. You also feel like you’re getting sick.
Sound familiar? It should. Anxiety and illness are common features of vacations, and they may help explain why we sometimes don’t experience much of a boost after we’ve returned from a holiday. “The research to date has failed to demonstrate clearly that vacations contribute to life satisfaction in significant ways,” says M. Joseph Sirgy, a professor and management psychologist at Virginia Tech University who has studied the effects vacations have on our wellness.
Far from recharging your batteries, time away can leave you feeling broke, burned out, and slightly down in the dumps, Sirgy says. “When we experience certain highs in life” — like when we have the chance to throw off the shackles of our usual obligations — “this is…
