Boost your brain with boredom

“Mom, Dad, I’m bored.”

How many parents have heard this from children? It may make parents feel like they’re failing, need to find something for the child to do or simply annoyed that children seem incapable of entertaining themselves.

Yet a little boredom for children and adults can be a good thing. It can simulate creativity and problem-solving, while giving the brain time to recharge.

Boredom basics

Why do people get bored? The feeling of boredom is when brains struggle to fill time. People may feel restless or have a lack of interest in their surroundings. Boredom is common, with over 60% of U.S. adults reporting that they feel bored at least once a week.

People’s brains rarely are bored while focused on taking part in demanding tasks like work or school, or while taking part in a good conversation. When these activities are done, people experience fatigue and seek ways to entertain themselves and their brains.

Play and entertainment have been ways humans have figured out to overcome boredom. Adults read, spend time with hobbies or tell stories to avoid boredom. Before the advent of TV and mobile devices, children overcame boredom by going outside or playing with a friend or sibling.

Today, electronics capture a significant amount of people’s attention. But this readily accessible medium may have swung too far in capturing people’s attention. Instead of short-term relief from boredom, many people spend hours on electronics.

It’s easy not to feel the passage of time while scrolling TikTok or watching YouTube videos. Quickly, an hour or two can pass without a person realizing it. For all that time spent, people don’t necessarily feel refreshed. Rather, most people experience greater fatigue.

Consuming so much time on electronics lessens the amount of bored time, but also it causes a different problem. The less people experience boredom, the less equipped the brain is to deal with it.

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