Esther McCarthy: The most luxurious gift of all? Time alone

Despite all the craving, 83% of women say actually getting hold of alone time is difficult for them

One in six women admitted to faking a supermarket run purely to get a few minutes of peace in the car.

Two hours and 15 minutes. That’s the official, expert-backed, scientifically- arrived-at amount of alone time a woman needs each day to properly recharge, according to a new survey; 60% of women, the same survey found, feel guilty even asking for it.

Now, I get a lot of emails involving sparkly surveys, usually funded by a company that has something to gain from the findings and is trying to sell us something. For example, a fake tan company will reveal nine out of 10 women surveyed say they feel healthier with bronzed-looking skin. No kidding, gasp, for realsies, mister?