There’s obviously no great time to get sick, but certain moments can feel like the absolute worst—namely, when you’re about to enjoy some time off work. It especially sucks to spend the first few hours or days of a vacation swallowing through the pain of swollen lymph nodes, conked out on the couch with a head cold, or even just feeling rundown and bleh overall. Yet, paradoxically, it can often feel like that’s exactly when illness strikes, as if your body is playing some sort of twisted trick on you and sabotaging the precious period you’ve set aside for yourself.
It turns out, that’s more than a hunch. Researchers have long spotted what Dutch psychologist Ad Vingerhoets, PhD, dubbed “leisure sickness” in 2002, or the peculiar phenomenon of feeling crappy during weekends or longer stretches of downtime. It hasn’t been proven as a bona fide medical condition, in and of itself—but it’s “definitely something that we observe in patients,” Jay Lee, MD, MPH, FAAFP, medical director at Integrated Health Partners of Southern California and a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, tells SELF.
Leisure sickness itself is used as an umbrella term to explain feeling unwell during time off. It can include everything from having a legit illness, like a cold or the flu, to just feeling symptoms like muscle pains, fatigue, and headache, with no underlying infection to blame. The potential causes are just as varied, but the common denominator is that it shows up when you’re at, well, leisure.
The bright side is, your body’s not actually out to get you, and you’re not doomed to sniffle or trudge your way through the start of every vacation, either. Read on to learn why the experts think leisure sickness can take hold and what you can do to stave off a case.
Leisure sickness may happen because of pre-vacation stress and changes to your routine.
The whole idea can be a bit of a head-scratcher (rest and relaxation making you…ill?) until you consider what might happen before you take that time off. For instance, you may have been grinding it out at work for weeks if not months on end ahead of a long vacation. Not to mention, the doozy of a to-do list and the associated spike in anxiety that often crops up when you’re preparing for time off, even if it’s just the upcoming weekend. In any case, it’s common to run yourself ragged in the leadup to a break, which may ultimately make you sick for a few reasons.
One possible explanation has to do with how your immune system responds to short periods of stress. When you’re in a tense situation, your body releases stress hormones like epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline) and cortisol, which trigger a cascade of physical changes to help you power through. For example, your pulse and breathing speed up, and your immune system also goes on high alert, so you’re primed to handle the threat at hand without getting sick. In small doses, having a stress response is important, Dr. Lee explains: “We can all think of times when we had a deadline to hit or we needed to protect somebody we love, and a short burst of stress helped increase our focus and ability to get to the goal.” But as soon as the trouble subsides, that response flips off, which may affect your immune system, too, Dr. Lee says. “When we leave those situations, it’s like we let our guard down both psychologically and biologically.” This swing in your immune function may be enough to leave you vulnerable to the virus du jour. People with migraine may experience a similar phenomenon, known as a “let-down” or “weekend” migraine. The cause isn’t totally clear, but the main theory is that abrupt changes in hormone levels when a stressful period ends can trigger a migraine attack.
For anyone thinking, But I’m always stressed at work, it’s not just a pre-vacation thing, your immune system might be betraying you in a different way. Being chronically stressed can actually suppress your overall immune function, Purvi Parikh, MD, MD, FACAAI, FACP, a New York-based allergist and immunologist and a member of the medical advisory council of the Allergy & Asthma Network, tells SELF. So if you live most of your life in a frazzled state, you could be more susceptible to catching something—and work obligations might just keep you from noticing early symptoms. “Often, when we’re busy, we aren’t thinking about what’s going on internally so even if something is brewing, we may be more aware of it once we have stopped and aren’t distracted by the day-to-day grind,” Dr. Parikh says.
At the same time, the all-consuming demands of a packed work period can make it hard to keep up with your typical routine. Maybe you’re staying up later than usual, outright skipping meals or workouts, or eating less-than-nutritious foods. It’s easy to let go of the things you normally do to care for yourself in the name of “powering through,” Dr. Lee says. The problem is, a combo of missed sleep, poor nourishment, and lack of exercise can make you feel low-energy, moody, and generally unwell—even if you’re not actually sick. What’s more, these lifestyle changes also strain your immune system, opening the door for an infection to weasel itself in as soon as you peace out.
Traveling is yet another strike on your immune system and stressor on your body. For starters, you could be exposed to unfamiliar germs in crowded spaces (hello, airplane breeding ground). Not to mention, the change in your routine just makes it more likely that you wind up sleep-deprived or dehydrated, which can leave you feeling woozy, tired, or headache-y.
How to lower your chances of feeling sick during time off
1. Make an everyday effort to manage stress, even if it’s a tiny one.
While a quick hit of stress may help you power through a couple long nights of work, there’s the potential risk that you crash and burn right after. And we know that in the long-term, stress wears down your immune system. So, both experts suggest working some simple stress-zapping strategies right into your everyday schedule. This way, it’s more likely to become a habit that sticks—even when you’re staring down a monster pre-vacation to-do list.
Dr. Parikh suggests setting aside time to unwind and unplug at the end of every day “to give your mind the mental break it needs.” Another idea? Take deliberate pauses in between periods of intensity throughout your day, Dr. Lee suggests. Better yet, fill them with a brief stress-relief exercise, like a few rounds of box breathing (inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold for four counts) or progressive muscle relaxation, which involves tensing and then releasing each body part from your toes up.
2. Double down on basic health hygiene in the leadup to a vacation.
Plenty of your everyday habits can lend a hand to your immune system and also offer support for your physical and mental health in the short-term. And according to Dr. Lee, they’re all the things you might intuitively know: eating a balanced diet, getting ample sleep, and moving your body. While you’d ideally do the full trifecta on a regular basis (ha!), it’s especially useful to tune into how you’re caring for yourself amid the pre-vacation blitz—when some stress may be inevitable, and you also really don’t want to feel crappy or catch a virus, Dr. Lee says. Even making a point to eat one vegetable or walk for 15 minutes each day, or clock a couple eight-hour nights of sleep in the week prior to your time off can make a difference, he notes.
General illness-evading tactics certainly apply here, too, Dr. Lee adds. Washing your hands regularly (especially before eating), keeping your hands off your face, re-upping that face mask, and maintaining some space between you and anyone who’s sick can help reduce your chances of catching whatever bug is going around.
3. If you’re traveling, hydrate well beforehand (and during).
Drinking plenty of water is another one of those good-all-the-time things, but it really comes into play when you’re on the go because “travel is a very dehydrating event,” Dr. Lee says. As noted above, taking a trip tends to switch up your schedule, which means you might not be sipping as habitually as you usually do. (If you’re boarding a plane or traveling to a different climate, you may be dealing with drier air, too.) And again, being low on liquids can make you dizzy and lightheaded—super unideal for vacation.
So, Dr. Lee says to double down on your fluid intake before and during a trip to steer clear of the negative physical consequences of dehydration. There’s no single amount of water to aim for (ICYDK, eight cups a day is a myth), but keep a bottle by your side and sip regularly to the point where you’re avoiding feelings of thirst and your pee is light in color, akin to lemonade versus apple juice.
4. Ease yourself into vacay mode.
Downshifting from the go-go-go of constant work to total nothingness may have some wonky effects on your immune system, as noted above. Maintaining a few aspects of consistency might help to smooth that transition a bit: Perhaps you still go to sleep and wake up relatively close to your usual times (at least for the first couple days of a long vacation) and work in some exercise, even if it’s just strolling around. “The nice thing about leisure is that you have the time to do things like get rest and move your body,” Dr. Lee says. He also suggests not making a massive change to your diet or overdoing it on the booze right from the jump, particularly if you don’t drink alcohol regularly.
That’s not to say your time off can’t be a real break and change of pace; it can and it should be. “By all means, we want everyone to enjoy leisure time,” Dr. Lee says. But, he adds, not doing a complete 180 from the habits that typically keep you healthy can help you maximize your OOO time—and keep sickness from rudely interrupting.
Related:
How to Stop Worrying About Work on Vacation 9 Super-Helpful Ways to Take Care of Your Mental Health While Traveling Why Does Getting Sick Turn Me Into a Whiny Little Crybaby?
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