IS 'LEISURE SICKNESS' A REALITY?

How stress, immunity and the let-down effect may be linked to the phenomenon of your body crashing just as your holiday or weekend begins

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You've been hanging out for a break, getting through the busy last weeks of work or class. You're finally ready to relax. And then tiredness descends, you feel the tickle in your throat, and you realise you're getting sick.

Why does this always seem to happen just in time for a holiday or the weekend?

Some call this the letdown effect or leisure sickness. While you may hear about leisure sickness online and anecdotally, studies on this phenomenon are very limited and often not well designed.

So let's take a look at the evidence and what you can do to stay healthy.

Evidence shows...

Leisure sickness is a term coined by Dutch researchers in a 2002 study and refers to people who are seldom ill during the working week but get sick relatively often on weekends or holidays.

The researchers surveyed 1,893 people and found roughly 3 per cent reported leisure sickness. Symptoms typically included headaches, tiredness, colds and flu, muscle pain and nausea. People were more likely to develop infections on vacation rather than weekends, and symptoms were most common during the first week of their holiday. However, this research relied on people's recall, and memory can be unreliable. The definition of leisure sickness was also vague. For example, one person’s idea of “seldom” and “relatively often” may differ from another's.