What is Leisure Sickness?
If on weekends, you have trouble sleeping, feel nauseous, exhausted, get cold or flu symptoms or headaches, and particularly if you get ill on vacations, you may be suffering from leisure sickness. In the late 20th century, Ad Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort, psychologists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, first studied the syndrome of leisure sickness. Essentially, Vingerhoets and van Huijgevoort found that many people seem to get ill on weekends and vacations, not from viral based diseases, but from the fact that they are not working. In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, leisure sickness is associated with aches and pains and an overall feeling of fatigue. Those who suffer from the condition may also have lousy vacations, because they frequently feel ill or lack the energy to enjoy the activities they planned to do. Leisure sickness is considered psychosomatic, because most people in the midst of it are not suffering from any viral or bacterial illness. In the
