Camping company say Brits need more playtime

Miserable weather, demanding jobs and more rate rises mean stressed out Brits have never needed so much ‘time-out’. A recent study, commissioned by holiday company Eurocamp, found that regular playtimes could be the secret to a happy, healthy life.

And psychologists at Manchester Metropolitan University have come up with a unique formula to calculate just how much play we need.

According to the study a dose of approximately 90 minutes play per day will help us achieve balance in our demanding lifestyles - not easy to achieve and so this is often topped up by an annual holiday.

This calculation is based on the rule that an additional 25% of an average 40-hour working week should be spent engaged in one of five essential play elements.

The five essential play elements include being with nature (N), taking activity outdoors (O), being active as a family (F), indulging in creative time (CE) and enjoying relaxed, unstructured fun (R).

Dr David Holmes, senior psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University has come up with a practical formula for calculating whether or not you are getting enough quality play each day.

Formula:
(N+O) x (R + F) + CE

Ruth Start, UK head of sales and marketing with Eurocamp, said:

“Spending quality time with our families, embracing the outdoors, learning new creative skills and enjoying play purely for play’s sake are all important factors to help us redress the work-life balance. Having said that, on the whole, we’re probably not getting quite enough daily ‘quality’ play as we need and for most of the only way is to rely on a holiday in the sun to get our annual quota.”

To calculate whether you’re getting your GDA of play visit: Eurocamp.co.uk (under ‘families’ section)