A study shows that after just five hours of 'doing nothing' our physical and mental well-being collapses dramatically
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousA study shows that after just five hours of 'doing nothing' our physical and mental well-being collapses dramatically
We all yearn to disconnect from work or from the thousand activities that stress us every day to finally allow ourselves a few hours of well-deserved idleness, or to indulge in our favorite hobbies without suffering the pressure of deadlines. Yet, despite what we might think, too much rest is bad for our health: if at first our well-being is invigorated by the pause and the possibility of engaging in playful activities, this trend declines if we relax too much.
The key is to take a moderate rest every now and then, according to the authors of the study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania which summed up two studies conducted between the 90s and the early 35.000s, involving more than XNUMX volunteers. The researchers investigated how people spent a typical day: after dividing the time spent in useful activities and free time, it was found that while a growing sense of well-being was felt in the first two hours of free time, this decreased drastically if the time devoted to idleness exceeded five hours.
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It is not only the amount of free time spent that makes the difference, but also the use that is made of this time: spending free time alone in activities that are not productive at all (such as 'scrolling' the message boards of social networks) produces a worse effect than activities that are more productive or that require interaction with other people.
The team of researchers also conducted online interviews, asking participants to imagine a certain amount of free time per day and to think about what they would do with it - especially specifying whether it was useful activity or just wasted time. More free time was not necessarily viewed in a more positive way, on the contrary: most people chose small amounts of time to devote to leisure activities.
It would therefore be good to find a couple of hours every day to devote to our free time and the activities we like the most rather than concentrating all our free time in a single day: we would end up getting bored, feeling more downcast and wasting the time we have. we are so painstakingly cropped. If we have one or two days completely free, let's spend them in good company, dedicating ourselves to activities that are also useful and productive: in this way we will not seem to have wasted time and rest will have carried out its precious function,
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Fonte: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
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