Spending This Many Days On Vacation Will Make You The Happiest Version Of Yourself

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Going away on vacay? That’s great — you deserve it. If you haven’t considered how long you’re taking off for just yet, listen up. According to science, you’ll likely feel the happiest and most refreshed after an eight-day vacation. Yep, it’s time to break out that PTO.

Americans aren’t so good at taking vacation days. If their bosses aren’t shaming them out of their rightfully-earned time off, they’re often just not using the days they’ve accrued. The average vacation for a working American is just four days, but it looks like it’s totally worth it to take double this amount of time away from home.

For the study, Jessica de Bloom, a work and organizational psychology researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, surveyed a number of participants before, during and after their vacations about their time off, which ranged from 15 to 34 days in length. From her collected data, she found that eight days is the ideal vacation length when it comes to overall trip satisfaction.

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Three weeks before each participant’s vacation, he or she filled out a questionnaire detailing demographics, job information and length of the trip. During the vacation, each participant logged information about overall positive and negative feelings. De Bloom found that on average, the participants reported increasingly positive feelings until the eighth day of vacation, which is where happiness peaked. After the eighth day, feelings of restlessness and anticipation about returning to work took over.

Bonus: Not only were participants happier after their eight-day vacations, but they also returned to their normal lives feeling refreshed and recharged.

So it looks like it’s time to, well, take the time! Vacation is an important tool for relaxation, recovery and rejuvenation, so don’t feel shy about spending a little more than a week in your version of paradise. We’re already planning our next trip.