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Boredom might be the health and happiness tool you've forgotten how to use
Cast your mind back to the moments when you’ve been really, truly bored. Mine are pretty much always memories from when I was a kid – the precious playtime delayed by nattering adults (now, on reflection, probably engaged in juicy gossip), the ‘are we there yet?’ of CD player-only car rides and clock-watching during lessons on Pythagoras' Theorem.
In fact, now age 30, boredom was something that I was certain I had grown out of. That was before a recent plane journey took me back to that irritating, uncomfortable brain state.
A dead phone and no way to revive it left me entirely to my own devices, with the thrilling options of browsing the budget airline’s sandwich selection in their inflight magazine or pondering what the specifics were of the luscious haircare regime of the lady to my front (Olaplex or K18? I guess I'll never know.)
In a moment of resignation, I turned to my right and gazed out the window at the fluffy white clouds and blue sky for miles. It didn’t take long for me to zone out into a daydream of the kind that my busy schedule rarely permits. Then, the unexpected happened, as my swirling thoughts magically coalesced into fully-formed ideas.
I suddenly remembered that I needed to send a friend some flowers, devised a clever method for fixing the bathroom loo seat with superglue and conjured up a way to make a feature idea I was writing more timely.
Searching for head space
I’ve realised, since then, that every time I lean into my boredom I tend to come up with my best ideas and swiftest solutions.
This is a reality which the newest science has increasingly been backing up. One 2019 study found that boredom can boost productivity and creativity, while another paper published the same year indicated how it can improve wellbeing by giving our overloaded brains an opportunity to relax and destress.
Then there was the research, in December, that showed how social media may be preventing us from accessing boredom’s perks of discovering meaningful activities and new passions.
‘We are starting to become more aware of the benefits of boredom and letting our brains just be,’ says Dr Sandi Mann, a chartered psychologist, lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and author of books The Science Of Boredom and The Upside of Downtime.
She was prompted to make boredom one of her key research focuses after investigating the emotions that we tend to hide or fake, rather than express naturally, during her PhD – and discovered that this is a misunderstood and untapped area of brain power.
Fast forward to 2023, and the world of wellness has been slowly but surely entering its boredom era. Its presence can be seen in the rise over the past few years of digital detoxing and the trend for ‘dopamine fasting’.
More recently, there has been the social media-driven ‘slow living’ movement and increased conversations surrounding burnout (see clinical psychology researcher Katina Bajaj on TikTok). Elsewhere, it can arguably be detected to some degree in the phenomenon of ‘quiet quitting’ at work and how we now consume entertainment, like the return of TV episodes dropped weekly rather than binged.
Zoning out
Less is now most certainly more. But how did we get here? ‘Boredom is when our brain neurons are searching for an optimal level of stimulation and don't find it,’ explains Dr Mann.
‘We’ve been primed since childhood to view boredom as a negative emotion and something we should get rid of.’
But its absence in our adult lives is also because of the digital age we now live in. ‘Where before we would have had to do something quite active to get rid of boredom – and have the leisure time and money to be able to do that – now there’s the ability to swipe and scroll it away in a passive manner,’ she notes. Think Jane Austen writing her literary classics versus our penchant for Wordle.
‘It’s in our evolutionary interests to want to experience new things, but we can become addicted to the dopamine hit of novelty at our fingertips,’ continues Dr Mann.
Unsurprisingly, research has shown that feelings of boredom at work see us reaching for our smartphones, a bad habit I’m all too familiar with. I’ve caught myself, during the mundane task of sorting invoices, tapping onto WhatsApp on autopilot.
There’s emerging evidence that succumbing to such instant gratification in order to erase boredom is only making us feel more bored, more quickly, in the long run. ‘The digital age has led us to expect high levels of stimulation,’ explains Dr Mann.
‘But in not allowing ourselves to experience boredom, we are becoming less tolerant of it and unable to cope with a slower pace of life. It’s a catch-22.’
This is not to say that people didn’t experience boredom before tech arrived. But part of our newfound resistance to the emotion seems to come from the fact that, where once the luxury of downtime was a status symbol, being busy is the new marker of success.
Indeed, if we’re socially rewarded for productivity and self-improvement, allowing yourself to be bored can feel like the ultimate failure. Shouldn’t I be bilingual? In training for a half marathon? Have mid-week dinner plans?
‘The negative connotations surrounding boredom can particularly affect women,’ notes Dr Mann. ‘Somehow in our busy society we have equated it with not feeling useful, valued or important.’
And might we also feel ‘safer’ running around in a state of frantic doing? ‘When we’re bored our brains can begin dealing with things, and we in a respect be a bit afraid of what they might uncover or where they go to,’ adds Dr Mann. ‘Some people may fear that it triggers negative thinking, tipping them into worry cycle or dark thoughts.’
Such is our aversion to being left alone with our own mind is that one fascinating 2014 study showed that as many as 25% of the female participants preferred to electrically shock themselves in a lab instead.
Dream on
Yet, the drive to maximise every last facet of our lives is not only contributing to widespread burnout (which a recent survey from work messaging platform Slack found is on the rise globally) but is also holding us back from fulfilling our full potential.
As Dr Mann reveals, boredom allows us to enter a state of daydreaming. ‘This is our brain searching for neural stimulation internally, because it hasn’t found it externally, by delving into memories and making connections,’ she explains.
This means that mind wandering, without the distracting ping of notifications and flashing screens, is a hallowed headspace that leads to creativity and problem-solving.
‘We think outside the box and make connections in our brain that we wouldn’t have if we had more conscious control,’ notes Dr Mann. She points out that we saw it very much in action during the pandemic when an increase of boredom lead to people taking up baking or starting a new business.
What’s more, there’s a line of thinking among experts that exploring your own boredom – and figuring out why you feel so unstimulated – could be an important sign for what needs to change in your life. Job rut? Stale relationship?
‘Boredom shouldn’t be chronic,’ shares Dr Mann. ‘Every emotion has a purpose and this should be enlisted to ultimately make positive changes to your life. It’s about finding a sweet spot, which is going to be different for everybody.’
Because while adrenaline junkies may get their kicks from skydiving, perhaps you simply need the extra challenge that a job promotion can deliver.
Quiet progress
When harnessing the powers of boredom, it’s vital to be aware that there are also downsides to it. Research has linked it to depression, anxiety, poor work performance and loneliness. ‘But it’s not the boredom itself that’s negative, it’s what we do when we’re bored. That’s why too much of it can become unhealthy,’ warns Dr Mann.
To illustrate her point she mentions some of her previous research which found that when we’re at a loose end we tend to reach for the sugary, fatty foods that give us a quick dopamine hit, rather than more nutritious items like nuts and carrots.
In addition to overeating, there’s evidence that boredom can lead to more risky behaviours like drug, alcohol and gambling abuse.
The key is to stop viewing boredom as a negative thing, says Dr Mann, and to cut yourself some slack every time your mind drifts off. ‘Then going off into our heads and daydreaming will actually feel quite relaxing,’ she explains.
Oh, and don’t conflate boredom with scheduled downtime. ‘If we have a low level of optimal stimulation, like we’re reclining on the beach and we’re not searching it, then it’s not boredom. That’s relaxing,’ she adds.
In contrast, boredom is the kind of head space that’s really easy to weave into our daily lives. ‘It can be as simple as watching the fields whizz by on a train journey or refraining from getting your phone out at the supermarket,’ shares Dr Mann.
How to actually take this on in your own life? The key is to leave your devices out of arm’s reach. ‘That’s why swimming is great, because you have to fully disconnect,’ she adds.
My go-to ways to clear space for the good stuff include walks without a podcast and sitting at my desk without the guilt-scrolling of a certain sidebar of shame. What a brainwave.
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