The importance of taking a break
As the holiday season approaches, people are taking breaks from work and school to celebrate the holidays, travel, or simply to relax.
According to a 2017 holiday schedules survey by the Society for Human Resources Management, 95% of U.S. offices will be closed for Christmas and New Year’s Day. All U.S. schools have some form of winter break as well.
A possible reason for the extreme popularity of winter break is to relieve stress. Employees have performance targets, students have finals and teachers have test planning as the year comes to close, serving as another stressor in their daily lives.
Sophomore Nicole Belov describes the increased amount of stress in her life before winter break.
“Sometimes there is so much homework that I feel like a need to stop,” Belov says. “Especially with finals coming up, I am a lot more stressed.”
The increase in workplace stressors is statistically shown in a Holiday Stress Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which states “during the holiday season, work remains the primary cause of stress for most people in the United States. The majority (56 percent) feel that work is their greatest source of stress.”
Janene Rich, French teacher at FHS, believes winter break is essential for teachers’ and students’ mental health to relieve pent up stress.
“We all need [a mental break] and if we do not take it, as teachers or students, it ends up affecting the other group,” Rich says. “Travel is a really important important thing for holidays, to get out of your element, to get away from the pressures that you have.”
Furthermore, Bradley Scholten, math teacher at FHS, has noticed a positive change in students’ moods after winter break in previous years.
“Since my first year of teaching, I have noticed the stress that students really feel coming in to the holidays,” Scholten says. “After the break, I have noticed that, because there is a fresh start, they come back refreshed and ready.”
Not only may taking winter break be important for managing end-of-year stress, taking breaks seems to be important in everyday life, as it proves to affect mental function.
A study about Israeli judges’ rulings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America finds that “the percentage of favorable rulings drops gradually from approximately 65 percent to nearly zero within each decision session and returns abruptly to approximately 65 percent after a break.”
After spending a significant amount of time making rulings, decision fatigue, referring to the progressive decrease in quality of decisions, can set in for judges. This can make them opt for the simplest option, saying no.
Rich also comments on a mental break’s effect on her decision-making.
“[Taking mental breaks] does not make me work any faster, but it helps me prioritize and make good decisions,” Rich says, “when my brain is tired, the decision-maker doesn’t seem to function so well.”
The sense of renewal one feels after taking a break proves to increase productivity, but this sense does not last long. According to a study of taking a spring break in the journal Psychology and Health, 60 percent of workers noticed a great positive change in health and wellbeing during vacation and about 2 weeks after resuming work. However, after those two weeks, the health and wellbeing of the workers return to their baseline level.
Taking a vacation seems to not be enough to cause lasting improvements in mental health and productivity. This weakening effect of taking mental breaks indicates the importance of consistency.
According to the academic journal Scientific American Mind, “In one experiment, each of four consultants on a team took a break from work one day a week. [...] The consultants gradually came to love their mandated time off because it restored their willingness and ability to work, making them more productive overall.”
The type of break one takes also plays a role in mental function. In a study by the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, call-center workers were given a 20 minute break, during which one group practiced guided meditation and one group chatted with their coworkers. Overall, the group that practiced guided meditation experienced less emotional, mental, motivational and physical strain at the end of the day than their counterparts.
Deirdre Louie, one of the student advocates at FHS has noticed a difference when she takes a more meditative break.
“I am a big fan of mindfulness as my mental break,” Louie says, “Sometimes, when I feel overwhelmed, I will take five minutes to do a quick breathing exercise and then I feel more able to handle whatever I have to do.”
Focusing on primary human functions, such as breathing or meditating, can increase the improvement of mental health and generally relieve stress.
Overall, taking short and mindful breaks constantly can act as a stress-relieving routine for students and workers alike. Considering the several benefits, adding short meditative breaks throughout the week may be essential for the severely stressed.