Excessive free time does not make people happier, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California Los Angeles examined whether having extra free time would improve wellbeing. The study looked at the data of 13,369 Americans who participated in the National Study of Changing Workforce from 1992 to 2008. The study asked participants how much discretionary time they had and to rate their well-being.
The study found that a person's happiness increases with added free time — but only to an extent. After a certain point, having too much free time diminishes well-being.
A second study examined 30,914 people who were employed, unemployed, absent from work that day and those who didn't work. The second study found a negative relationship with excessive free time.
The researchers found the sweet spot for discretionary time to be two to five hours a day. Those with less than two hours a day felt stressed. Those with more than five hours of discretionary time experienced a decline in well-being.
"Shall we quit everything and go live on a desert island, the answer is no," Cassie Molgilner Holmes, one of the researchers on the study, told the Washington Post. "We would not be any happier."