Kari Henley wrote an important post earlier this summer on the importance of vacations and why Americans are behind on taking time off. She writes:

Only 14% of Americans took two weeks of vacation last year, and the number of Americans taking family vacations has dropped by a third in the past generation. The price we pay, by not getting away to unwind, is huge on our physical health, relationships, and emotional sense of well being.

Why are we reluctant as a culture, to support taking time off? Are vacations too costly to our GNP? Turns out job stress and burnout is said to cost our country over $300 billion per year. Our European friends have managed to compete in the modern era while continuing to take their month long “holiday”- are they just slackers?

As much as we’d like to think so, the answer is, no. The level of productivity per worker is the same, or slightly higher that ours, despite the fact they work 300 fewer hours per year. Europeans spend half the amount on health care as the US. They are requiring less health care, partly because Europeans are 50% less likely to have heart disease, hypertension or diabetes before age 50 than Americans.

Rethinking the importance of time off yet? Vacations are not just luxuries, or pithy pastimes for the rich. Statistics are showing that other countries who take regular vacations are happier, and live longer than we do. In 1980, people in only 10 other countries lived longer than we do. Now, people in 41 other countries live longer. Wow. That’s a pretty compelling reason to make sure that all Americans are getting some R&R, and that we learn how to truly “get away.”

Another study appearing in the September-October 2000 edition of the medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine points to the cardiovascular benefits of vacationing. On SharkBytes Bulletin Health Tips, I read this:

In that study, conducted by Brooks Gump, PhD, of the department of psychology at the State University of New York at Oswego , the frequency of vacationing was studied among more than 12,000 men at high risk for heart disease over a nine-year period. Results showed that men who took vacations had significantly less risk of dying from heart disease — or any other condition — than men who did not.

Cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington , says the Psychosomatic Medicine study confirms his own belief that too much work and not enough play is bad for the heart. “When my patients tell me they can’t afford to take a vacation, I tell them they can’t afford not to,” he tells WebMD.

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