Aged 33? Then it’s the busiest period of your life, a survey has found.

According to the survey by Internet mail provider Hotmail, 33 years is the age when the struggle to balance work, family and social activities takes up more time than at any other point in one’s life.

There is so much to do that a third of 33-year-olds say they get an average of only five hours sleep a night and two thirds claim they spend more than 38 hours a week.

And 60 percent say they are forced to double book work and social appointments to try to squeeze everything in.

Once work and family commitments are dealt with, the average 33-year-old has only one hour a day left to do something they enjoy. And even then, one in five says they are so busy that they never have any time to go out and socialise.

Fifty-six per cent regularly need to take work home to complete it; 90 per cent of 33-year-old women in the survey said they thought they were busier than men of the same age.

This could be down to women juggling senior level careers, getting married and having a family.

The good news is that once we hit 55 the pressures on our lives get easier, largely because our careers have peaked by then and our children have left home.

By that age we can look forward to  enjoying an average of one hour and 23 minutes to ourselves each day.

Those aged over 55 spend an average of 30 hours in the office, only 14 per cent double book arrangements and less than half take work home.

Fiona Fyfe, from Hotmail, said: “The research statistics show we are all struggling to juggle the priorities in life.

“When we reach our 30s, our careers tend to be high pressured and we have more responsibility in our personal lives.

“We also must organise ourselves during particularly busy periods in our lives to ensure we can enjoy life and get the balance right. Too much work and no play should not be an option.”