Too Much Spare Time Could Make You Sad: Study

No one likes being stressed out, with no personal time to do leisurely activities. But a new study suggests having too much time on your hands could decrease happiness, too.

The research, conducted by scientists at Xavier University in Cincinnati and Baylor University in Texas, shows that among teens who are materialistic and compulsive spenders, having too much spare time OR not having enough spare time are linked with lower happiness levels.

The study involved 1,329 high-schoolers. Researchers gauged how much spare time the teens had, as well as how much value they place on material things and their tendency to to buy compulsively.

Researchers also found that being materialisic and a compulsive buyer lowered happiness levels of teens.

"Living with a sensible, balanced amount of free time promotes well-being not only directly, but also by helping to alleviate some of the negative side effects associated with living in our consumer-orientated society," the researchers wrote in the study.

Even though this study shows that too much free time can make you unhappy, stress isn't good either. Check out these tips for beating stress in the office and around the holidays.

Comments

[LivelyLexie]

07:43 AM on 10/26/2011

Of course it does. If you have too much spare time, you'll start feeling like you aren't being useful. (At least, that's how I feel with too much spare time.)

[Averagedancer]

11:24 PM on 10/25/2011

I think it depends on the person. I have a friend who will not sit still for anything. Her idea of a vacation is to spend every waking hour find tourist spots, and snapping pictures of them. My idea of a vacation is to roll out of bed when I feel like it, and spend my day doing what I feel like doing. At a nice, leisurely pace. My kids are grown, so I have so much more time on my hands than I used to, and I love every minute. I can spend it with friends or not, I'm just as comfortable with my own company as I am with the company of others. And I don't find that I'm ever bored. In fact I get downright selfish with my days off, at times. Another aspect of getting older, I find, is that I'm more concerned with the quality of my friends, than the quantity. I don't need to keep in contact with 500 people on Facebook; I'd rather visit with the few really good friends I have in the here and now. Life is good. If you have spare time, enjoy it!

[Box500]

09:49 PM on 10/25/2011

I can imagine that someone with a 60 hr a week job and a couple of kids won't have much sympathy for a single person with "too much" free time.

[LivelyLexie]

07:44 AM on 10/26/2011

But what if someone is unemployed and didn't have children? There are extremes at both ends.

[singermuse]

02:07 PM on 10/25/2011

Did I read this one right? Too MUCH spare time?? This is a joke, right? If spare time makes people "sad" maybe it's because that spare time is allowing them to finally THINK a little about what's going on in the world, about their lives, about what changes might be needed. Instead of filling every little corner of our lives with mindless entertainment or being burdened say, with two jobs, raising children, struggling to get by, maybe that spare time will get us to the place of discontent and motivate us to CHANGE things like, say, the political status quo?? or maybe even take us beyond what we may have settled for and move us into a brighter destiny?

[jf12]

10:18 AM on 10/25/2011

Unless confined by disability, there is no possbility of too much spare time for the imaginative.

[ABXNOMORE]

10:27 AM on 10/24/2011

We needed a study to determine this?

[jsl262]

07:11 PM on 10/23/2011

I have been retired on disability after over 40 years of work. I find that even with my comfortable situation I am still bored and depressed at times. I do subscribe to the belief that getting out and interacting with people makes a difference. There is so much to explore each day. Just my thoughts.

[mass maritimer]

04:32 PM on 10/25/2011

I retired last year at age 39 to do home dialysis...other than being sick I adore my spare time. I never, ever had so much time. I sleep, I read, I exercise, I love my dogs, and I have a soul mate....

Then there is watching Hockey!

[schatsie]

12:59 PM on 10/23/2011

Tell that to the Danes, the Swedes and Norwegians...They will think that the USA has gone stone cold bonkers.....

[rebasfl]

10:22 AM on 10/23/2011

Wow. A study that finally supports keeping youth in school, studying for 8 full hours a day. Then
after school how about 'mandatory community service' for an hour or two. Teenagers frivolously use
up resources when left to their own devises. Keep 'em' in school and working to better the world.

[allerleirauh]

10:20 AM on 10/23/2011

Cause and effect. People who are depressed quit their activities, therefore depressed people end up with free time.

[zrzzzz]

12:23 PM on 10/22/2011

You're not really analyzing this thoughtfully. Too much free time for a teenager means they have no friends. Could that be the true source of the unhappiness there?

[Conrad Wesley Clough]

11:50 AM on 10/22/2011

So among teens who are not materialistic and compulsive spenders, overabundance of or lack of free time has no influence on happiness levels? Is that what they are saying?

[mem60]

05:31 AM on 10/22/2011

Having been laid off from the same job site after 21 years AND being older than 60 years old could lead to all sorts of scenarios and feelings of inadequacies post RIF. I missed the boat by one year of seniority. I've been laid off 4 weeks now and still haven't seen my first check from EDD.

[floodberg]

11:33 AM on 10/23/2011

That's rough, Mem60; I hope your luck changes.  Best wishes.

[Karen Berish Heilner]

02:13 PM on 10/23/2011

Am very sorry, best of luck to you...

[benshaton]

12:27 AM on 10/22/2011

I wouldn't know anymore about that than I'd know what too much money could do to me

[Siobhan Landis]

03:19 PM on 10/24/2011

Indeed - while too much spare time MIGHT make me unhappy, I haven't been able to put it to the test in a really long time. Since having kids, at least. That said, I've become aware that I seem to avoid having spare time - if it looks like there's some chance of my having some, I tend to sign up for the next course on my accounting certification, and that takes care of it.

My husband and I stopped by a local bar/restaurant/folk-music place on Saturday afternoon, just for a few minutes while he talked to the owner. There was a singer on stage, and the mood/music was incredible. It made me think maybe it would be nice to have some spare time, and use it enjoying this sort of thing.

[angelshalo321]

04:47 PM on 10/21/2011

TOO MUCH SPARE TIME CAN MAKE SAD---NUTS--BORED ---CRAZY----YOU HAVE TO KEEP BUSY...