Why am I always so tired when I go on holiday?
NEXT time you go on holiday, you might find yourself feeling even more tired than usual.
While this can often be attributed to jet lag, there can often be other reasons why you need to sleep more than usual.
You’ve got 'leisure sickness'
You may find yourself burning out at work – and therefore very tired – right before you go on holiday, simply because you have so much to get finished before you leave.
This then spills over into beach time.
Dutch psychologist Ad Vingerhoets from Tilburg University in Holland interviewed 1128 men and 765 women who were in high-powered jobs about getting ill on holiday.
Professor Vingerhoets told of the findings: "Likely candidates are people who are consumed with work, who have demanding and high-stress positions, and who have trouble making the transition between a work and non-work environment."
Elevated stress levels were found to make the immune system less effective – which sounds about right when you’re tying everything up before you turn on your out of office.
This can also be applied with getting everything packed, prepped and sorted before you leave the house, too.
You’re catching up with sleep
Most of us don’t get enough sleep in our day-to-day lives.
So heading on holiday and being allowed to sleep as much as you like can be a revelation.
Letting your body relax and catch up on that much-needed sleep can leave you feeling more sleepy because you’re realising what you’re missing in your everyday life in terms of sleep.
Professor Dorothy Bruck told : "If you haven't been fully rested for a while, you can forget what it feels like.
"People can lose their frame of reference. The average amount of sleep [adults have] is 7.2 or 7.3 hours.
"But when we let people sleep until they can't sleep anymore, the average is 8.25 hours."
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You’re drinking more on holiday
This one is obvious – who doesn’t like a beer or a cocktail round the pool?
Of course, alcohol makes us sleepy and when you do nod off, it actually interferes with sleep.
Your quality of sleep won’t be as good, and you will wake up feeling less rested than on a booze-free night.
It may be with considering having a few nights off the wine while you’re away, if you can – your body will thank you for it.
Sleeping in an unfamiliar place puts your brain on high alert
You may not feel as relaxed in a foreign bed, which can cause the left side of your brain to stay alert for “danger”.
The good news is that if you travel regularly, your brain can get better at learning to turn that function off.
reports that Yuka Sasaki from Brown University told the journal Current Biology: “Humans' brains are very flexible.
“Thus, people who are often in new places may not necessarily have poor sleep on a regular basis.”
You’re doing loads of activities
If you’re someone who finds it hard to sit around and do nothing on holiday then it might be that packed itinerary that’s got you yawning.
Planning an 8am sharp boat trip followed by sightseeing before lunch and a museum visit in the afternoon can be pretty exhausting.
If you can chill out for at least a day on holiday, you’ll feel far less tired for the rest of it, when you get back to your jam-packed itinerary.
Here are some other ways to get a good night's sleep while travelling.
