Researchers have found that can help alleviate the pressures of modern life, allowing individuals to feel more liberated.
In a study conducted by scientists at the University of Reading in the UK, 178 volunteers were asked to keep a diary for three weeks. Participants tracked the number of hours they spent alone each day, refraining from personal contact with others and communicating only through digital means (such as social media or email).
Each day, participants were asked if they could say, “Today I feel stressed.” The results showed that the more time people spent alone, the lower they rated their levels of .
The team also posed three questions to the volunteers: how pressured they felt to behave in a certain way, how free they felt, and how much control they felt over their daily activities. The more time participants spent alone, the more positive responses they provided to these questions.
In solitude, you are the “captain of your own ship”
What about the negative reputation that often surrounds loneliness? Researchers concluded that loneliness only seems unpleasant when individuals find themselves alone against their will.
This means that many people can happily spend hours in solitude without any detriment to their well-being, as reported by Daily Mail.
Professor Netta Weinstein, who led the study, stated, “Loneliness can be an extraordinary form of relaxation because you are the captain of your own ship.” There’s no boss pushing you to complete tasks, and no conversations requiring you to show interest and pleasantness.
Of course, communication with others is beneficial, but a certain level of solitude can balance the time we dedicate to socializing and enhance our well-being.
The research aimed to determine if there is a “tipping point”—a specific number of hours spent alone each day that could harm our well-being. Surprisingly, the scientists found no such threshold.
As the researchers concluded, loneliness is detrimental to mental health only for a short period and when “a person spends more time alone than is normal for them.”
The findings of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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