Needing a vacation after a vacation.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

Americans are wearier after their vacations than before them, a Gallup poll revealed. It found that fewer than one-third took breaks lasting longer than nine days.

About 33% of working adults said they had to put in more hours in the office the week before their vacation, contributing to the finding that 46% of those surveyed felt tired before their vacation began. Moreover, 54% described themselves as tired on returning home, the telephone survey of 1,000 adults found.

Roger J. Cadieux, a professor of psychiatry at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, who helped analyze the data, says good planning could help. If the main goal is recharging batteries, "I'm not going to go to Disney World; I'm going to go to a place in the mountains, a place with a lot of books." His other...