How much free time do we need to be happy, according to science

One of the greatest desires we have in life is to find moments of leisure to disconnect from work and daily commitments and carry out activities that give us happiness.

This was revealed by a study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology exact number of hours we must have to be happy.

Research conducted by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California states that although not having free time is harmful to your health, having an abundance of it is not associated with greater well-being.

How much free time do you need to be happy?

To determine how much free time do you need to be happy A survey was conducted among over 35 thousand Americans which detailed all the activities carried out in the last 24 hours.

The results revealed that people who had less than two hours free during the day they were more stressed. In contrast, those who were more than five hours free per day did not even present the highest levels of well-being.

In this sense, American researchers concluded it The ideal number of hours of leisure needed to be happy is between two and five.

Furthermore, they reiterated that having only 15 free minutes a day is just as harmful as having seven hours a day, as people in this situation often feel overwhelmed by the lack of productivity.

Marissa Sharif, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and lead researcher on the study, offered a warning, saying: having a lot of free time makes people happier than having it little.

“Perhaps the most interesting thing, however, is this a moderate amount of free time leads people to feel better or happier than having a lot of free time. And this is because, having a lot of free time, people realize this lack of productivity and goals,” the expert said in a dialogue with the Washington Post.