Whether you are on holiday right now - or most likely wishing you were – there is no doubt that the idea of a break seems to be even more of a luxury than it ever did.

Yet experts increasingly say that holidays are more than a treat, they are vital for our physical and mental health – and especially now given the stress and strain we have all been under thanks to Covid and lockdown.

Health professionals, even cardiologists, agree. "Don't think having an otherwise healthy lifestyle will compensate for working too hard and not taking holidays," Professor Timo Strandberg, of the University of Helsinki, Finland, has said. "Vacations can be a good way to relieve stress."

Strandberg studied the effect of taking time off on heart health and found that men who took three weeks or less annual vacation had a 37 per cent greater chance of dying than those who took more than three weeks. How long the holiday was didn't matter – the crucial element was making the break.

Psychotherapist and hypnotherapist Nick Davies believes that the length of time we take that break does matter because of our natural stress response. He explains: "When the sympathetic nervous system is triggered our heart rate and blood pressure increases, blood and oxygen flows to the major muscle groups, our pupils dilate, digestion stops and we perspire more preparing us for a 'Fight, Flight or Freeze' response."

But when we're on holiday and away from our everyday stresses, that allows our bodies to start working naturally to unwind us away from that state of adrenalin-fuelled readiness.