It's odd but I guess natural for people to need "an excuse" to have a pause. There is nothing keeping these people from doing this by themselves: stay home and do nothing (don't tend to household chores, or anything else, just to what you decided in advance to do, like reading or writing) if home is too busy, head down to the library and again, do what you planned to do, or a hotel and same. But it seems the problem is often times one will break a promise with oneself (to not be interrupted, distracted). So it's easier to rely on proscribed behavior (of this mock prison, for example).