Are vacations worth it?

度假真的值得吗？

Vacations can sometimes seem like more trouble than they’re worth when you come home to a full inbox and a fire hose of problems requiring immediate attention.

当你度假归来，迎接你的是满当当的收件箱和一堆亟待解决的棘手问题时，度假似乎有时显得得不偿失。

But people who skip vacations may be missing out on important health benefits, according to a growing body of research linking regular getaways to everything from better heart health to a lower risk of metabolic disorders and even a longer life.

然而，越来越多的研究表明，规律度假对健康大有裨益，从改善心脏健康、降低代谢疾病风险，甚至到延长寿命，不一而足。因此，那些放弃度假的人可能正错失这些重要的健康益处。

A 2025 review of 32 previous studies in the Journal of Applied Psychology also found that the immediate effects on well-being are more profound and long-lasting than previously thought.

2025年，《应用心理学杂志》对32项先前的研究进行了综述，发现度假对福祉的即时影响比人们之前认为的更为深远且持久。

Among the findings in one longitudinal study that followed more than 12,000 men at high risk of coronary heart disease: Those who took a vacation every year over a nine-year period reduced their overall risk of death by about 20 percent and their risk of death from heart disease by as much as 30 percent, according to the study’s main author, Brooks B. Gump, a professor of public health at Syracuse University, who studies the health effects of taking vacations.

在一项对12000多名冠心病高风险男性进行的长达九年的纵向研究中，研究主要作者、雪城大学研究度假健康效应的公共卫生学教授布鲁克斯·B·冈普发现：那些每年都坚持度假的人，总体死亡风险降低了约20%，因心脏病死亡的风险更是降低了高达30%。

Other researchers have identified links between taking vacations and fewer stress-related physical complaints, lower levels of exhaustion and depression, and greater happiness and well-being.

其他研究人员也发现，度假与更少的压力相关身体不适、更低的疲惫和抑郁水平，以及更高的幸福感和福祉感之间存在关联。

Even short breaks have health payoffs. When middle managers were assigned to either take a four-day vacation or take time off at home, those who left town reported greater positive effects on stress and well-being, according to researchers at Austria’s University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology. And unlike a tan line, the vacation “afterglow” continued for as long as 45 days post-vacation.

即便是短暂的休假，也对健康大有裨益。奥地利健康科学、医学信息学与技术大学的研究人员发现，当中层管理人员被分配到为期四天的度假或在家休息时，那些离开所在城市的人报告称，度假对缓解压力和提升福祉有更显著的积极影响。而且，与晒痕不同，度假的“余晖”效应在度假结束后仍能持续长达45天。

Not surprisingly, vacations may also help pay down a sleep debt, long associated with a greater risk of obesity and diabetes, a 2022 study in Nature Human Behavior suggests. Researchers relied on data collected from Sony SmartBands worn by some 20,000 people, covering 218,000 nights of travel, some of which may have been for business.

毫不意外的是，2022年《自然·人类行为》杂志上的一项研究表明，度假还有助于偿还“睡眠债”。长期睡眠不足与肥胖和糖尿病风险增加有关。研究人员利用约20000人佩戴的索尼智能手环收集的数据，覆盖了21.8万个夜晚的出行记录，其中部分出行可能是出于商务目的。

Among the travelers, people who were sleep-deprived - sleeping less than 7.5 hours a night - clocked more hours of sleep when they were away from home. (People who typically got more than 7.5 hours nightly tended to sleep less well on the road.)

在这些旅行者中，那些睡眠不足（每晚睡眠少于7.5小时）的人，在离家旅行时睡眠时间更长。（而那些每晚睡眠超过7.5小时的人，在旅途中睡眠质量则往往较差。）

Regardless of the setting or circumstances, it’s the breaking up of intense periods of work with long periods of rest and recovery that makes the difference to health and well-being. We need vacations to take care of ourselves.

无论环境或情况如何，真正对健康和福祉产生影响的是，用长时间的休息和恢复来打破高强度的工作周期。我们需要度假来关爱自己。