Exploring how discretionary time impacts health | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

August 13, 2026 - 18:32

A doctoral researcher at Harvard is asking a simple but overlooked question: does having free time actually make us healthier? Laura Chen, a candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is digging into how the hours we control outside of work and obligations affect our physical and mental well-being.

Most studies on time and health focus on work hours, sleep, or commuting. Chen wants to look at the leftover time, the discretionary hours we choose how to spend. The idea is that not all free time is equal. Two people might both have four free hours a day, but one spends them caring for a sick relative while the other plays tennis. The health impact, she argues, is likely very different.

Chen's work is still in early stages, but she is exploring how factors like income, gender, and caregiving duties change what people can do with their spare time. A person with low wages might use free hours for a second job, not rest. A mother might have no true downtime at all. This means that simply measuring leisure hours is not enough. The quality and flexibility of that time matter just as much.

The broader goal is to inform public health policy. If certain groups are systematically shortchanged on restorative free time, that could be a hidden driver of health disparities. Chen hopes her research will push employers and policymakers to think beyond wages and work hours, and to consider how time poverty, not just money poverty, wears down the body and mind. For now, her findings are preliminary, but they point to a fresh angle in the ongoing effort to understand what keeps people healthy.