How To Make Your Next Vacation Truly Restorative

Dec 28, 2018 by apost team

Have you ever taken a vacation only to find that the prep work to get there, the activities once there, and the aftermath of returning home was more stressful than the vacation was a respite and recovery from everyday life? If so, you are very likely going about your vacation all wrong, and it’s likely turned you off to the idea of it. Here’s some science-backed advice on why and how to take a vacation.

When you’re overworked and highly stressed, the idea of a vacation is something long and leisurely, right? You need that blank space and a plentiful amount of time to refill your mental fountain. But, this idealistic notion of an extended vacation is actually one reason many fail to ever take one.

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For one, most people find it impossible to impractical to take a week or more off from work. Second, the thought of returning to a mountain of work after a week or more absence isn’t encouraging for a worker bee. Again, this is where vacation becomes more stressful than just skipping it. However, science says you need to take that vacation because there are serious costs to endless work without significant breaks.

A 20-year Framingham Heart Study found that women in one Massachusetts town who infrequently vacationed were more apt to have heart attacks than their vacationing counterparts.

Another nine-year study in 2000 by the State University of New York of over 10,000 men showed similar findings - those who vacationed regularly had fewer cardiovascular incidents and a lower mortality rate.

Burnout is another serious problem with working around the clock without a vacation. Without a vacation, workers tend to feel more emotional exhaustion and inept at handling the demands of a job.

There’s also the secondary stress of bringing burnout home, which impacts family relations; contributes to anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts; and affects your general health and well-being.

What types of vacations offer the highest recovery? This is a question that’s been asked by sociologists for decades. Germany’s University of Konstanz’s Sabine Sonnentag is one such sociologist. Sonnentag has found that there are four main factors to a successful recovery vacation:

1. Control
2. Mastery experiences
3. Relaxation
4. Work-related psychological detachment

She compares the above type of vacation to a meal. The more nutritious components exist, the better it is for you. The fewer nutritious components exist, the more akin it is to eating empty calories. So, how do you get this nutritious vacation?

Control in relation to vacation recovery is simply having power. You have the power to choose where your attention goes, how your energy is expended, and what your time goes toward.

It’s an important facet for anyone, but it’s most critical to those with limited control in their work lives and those who normally find their free time calendars packed with family obligations. Being able to control vacation time is both restorative and liberating.

Mastery experiences are designed to give your life more meaning, purpose, and sense of accomplishment, which is of particular importance for those in uncertain jobs. These are activities that are challenging, engaging, and interesting in which you individually excel in doing.

Chess’s continued popularity amongst English codebreakers after WWll is an excellent example of mastery experiences. While chess was useful to build mental skills associated with cryptanalysis and was practised daily as a pastime, it remained a recovery experience and opportunity to demonstrate mastery of a skill long after the war ended.

The paper, "THE ART OF LIVING BY DISPOSITIONALLY HAPPY PEOPLE" by Allison Abbe, Chris Tkach and Sonja Lyubomirsky has shown that those engaging in such rewardingly difficult activities live more happy and satisfying lives than those pursuing purely pleasure-seeking activities.

Relaxation is about vacation activities that aren’t demanding and create pleasant and positive mental, physical, and emotional responses. That doesn’t mean the activity has to be totally passive. It’s all about your own unique perspective.

For some, sunbathing may be relaxing. Yet, for others, easily rowing a boat in tranquil waters may be relaxing. Whatever the activity, it just shouldn’t feel taxing or like it’s work.

Psychological detachment from work-related facets is the last ingredient for a healthy vacation. An Israeli military study demonstrated this by observing reservists after and before their mandatory annual service compliance. In Israel, most adults must serve as reservists following their full-time compulsory service.

Reservists were analysed concerning their energy and engagement levels upon returning for their few week stints, and the results were akin to those who’d been on vacation, including lower burnout and lower stress. Other studies of reserve service compared to civilian service from other areas of the world have shown similar results.

Did you know that studies have shown a higher level of stress and work-family conflict amongst workers who must keep in touch with work while on vacation? A similar situation exists for on-call workers and workers who will choose to worry about work-related subjects during off hours.

So, vacations need to include a level of detachment. In other words, leave the work at the office.

In the above mentioned Israeli study, the researchers found that the reservist’s happiness levels upon returning to work began to decline from the high of being away. They were left as happy or miserable as they were upon their last stint within a month of returning for their current one.

A similar decline effect has been noted by psychologists when it comes to civilian vacations from everyday work life. Even the mood, energy, happiness, and engagement high from the best vacations don’t last a long time. In fact, research says it lasts three to four weeks for the average person and even less for workaholics and perfectionists. This is why it’s important to understand both how and when to take a vacation.

Research by the Radboud University Nijmegen, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2013, has found that happiness rises quickly over the first few days of vacation, peaks around the eighth day, plateaus after that, and eventually declines within the weeks following the end of the holiday. Understanding this effect is key to making vacations meaningful and productive to recovery.

Multi-week vacations have their time and place, such as if you’re visiting a foreign country and need the time to travel and immerse. However, extended vacations otherwise don’t necessarily translate to more relaxation given the plateau effect most people experience.

Most people will find it more serving to take shorter, frequent vacations as times of respite and recovery than grandiose extended yearly events.

Vacation researcher and psychologist Jessica de Bloom of Finland’s University of Tampere compares vacations to sleep in saying you need regularity for either to be beneficial. The results of the meta-analysis of vacation effects on health and well-being were published in the Journal of Occupational Health in 2009.

Have your vacations been conducive to recovery? How do you plan to change the way you vacation so that you can truly recharge to handle everyday life? Tell us your thoughts, comments, and questions in the comment section, and don’t forget to pass this along to those you know in need of a real recovery vacation.