Regular vacations can work wonders

According to the Gallup study people who "strongly agreed" or "agreed" that they "always make time for regular trips" had a 68.4 score on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which uses questions about purpose, social support, financial resources, community involvement and physical health to measure people's outlook on life, the Washington Times reported.

Whereas, less-frequent travelers had a 51.4 well-being score. The benefits of vacation are strong enough to counter financial hardships that affect workers in the lowest income bracket.

Those who earn less than 24,000 dollars annually and say they take regular trips actually have higher well-being (scoring 66.3) than those who earn120, 000 dollars or more but say they don't regularly make time for vacations (55.1).

However, the survey found that low income workers are about half as likely (33 percent) to make time for such leisure as those who make 120,000 dollars or more annually (64 percent).

The findings are important at a time when workers seem less inclined than in the past to use paid holidays, whether because of the stress of falling behind on projects or the costs of planning trips.