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Still Haven't Used Your Annual Leave? Read This First.

Writer: Kellie Varlet
Kellie Varlet
4 minutes ago
4 min read

What the research says might finally convince you to book it.


Here's something worth knowing before you skip your annual leave again.


The average Australian leaves five days unused every year. And the research on what those days are actually doing for your body and your nervous system makes a pretty strong case for stopping that habit.



What the Data Shows



Research cited by Dynamic Business found that most Australians say holidays make a real difference to their happiness and wellbeing.


And yet the leave sits there, untouched, while people tell themselves they'll get to it later. When things slow down. When the timing is better. When they've earned it.





The timing is never going to be perfect. And the body doesn't wait for perfect timing to start running on empty.



Before You've Even Packed a Bag


The planning itself is doing something.

Australian research on holidays found that the anticipation and the planning start working on your stress levels well before you've gone anywhere. The break itself builds on what the excitement has already started.


A psychologist quoted in the research described how being somewhere different, around different people, changes the way you see things when you get back. Fresh perspective. Renewed energy. A different relationship with the things that felt heavy before you left.


That doesn't happen by accident. It's a measurable shift in how your nervous system has been functioning.



Which means even booking something and letting yourself get excited about it has value. You don't have to wait until you're sitting on the plane to start benefiting.


I'm two weeks out from my next trip and something has already shifted. Sleeping better. The week feels lighter. Less of that background hum of things waiting for attention. That's the anticipation doing exactly what the research says it does.



What 32 Studies Found


Most people think of a holiday as a mental reset. And it is. But what's happening physically is worth understanding too.

Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated and elevated cortisol over time disrupts sleep, suppresses immune function, affects hormonal balance and increases inflammation. Most people don't realise how chronically elevated their baseline stress has become until something interrupts it long enough for them to feel the contrast.


A proper break does that. Not a weekend. Not a day off here and there while still checking emails. A real break where your nervous system gets sustained permission to come down from its baseline alert state.


A meta-analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, examining 32 studies across nine countries, found that vacation benefits last much longer than previously believed. Wellbeing stayed elevated even 21 days after returning, with researchers estimating positive effects could persist up to 43 days. Physical activities during the break produced the most lasting benefits, followed by social activities. And the key factor across all 32 studies? Fully disconnecting from work.



The body responds to rest in ways that no supplement or wellness routine can fully replicate.


Because rest isn't a wellness add-on. It's a biological requirement.


Rest Was Never a Reward


Most of us were raised with some version of the idea that rest is something you earn. Work hard enough, push through long enough, then maybe you deserve a break.


That belief is worth questioning.


Your body doesn't care whether you've earned rest. It needs it regardless. And when it doesn't get it, it finds other ways to slow you down. The persistent fatigue that won't shift. The motivation that keeps disappearing. The immune system that keeps letting things through. These are your body communicating that the rest it needed wasn't optional.


Taking your annual leave isn't slacking off. It's maintaining the very thing that makes everything else possible.


You Don't Need a Plane Ticket for This


Not everyone has a trip coming up and that's okay. The research on anticipation suggests that even planning something, something to look forward to even months away, starts producing the same benefit.

Book the thing. Put it in the calendar. Let yourself get excited about it. That part counts too.


And in the meantime, look for the smaller versions. The afternoon with no agenda. The weekend where you switch off rather than half resting while still available to everything. The hammock in the backyard with nowhere to be.


Your nervous system responds to all of it. Not just the big trips.


Whatever your next break looks like, let yourself look forward to it properly. And if you haven't booked anything yet, maybe this is the nudge.


And if you'd love some support building a wellness approach that includes rest as part of the plan, let's have a proper chat.


👉 Book your free initial coaching call here — I'd love to hear from you.




With love and a trip on the horizon,

Kellie 🌿





 
 
 

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