Going stir crazy? Here's everything you need to know about boredom
What is boredom?
A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University showed that at least 63 per cent of participants reported feeling bored at some point in the past ten days. This feeling appears to have been particularly prevalent among men, young people, the unmarried, and those on low incomes.
Boredom is an unpleasant state of mind characterised by a lack of stimulation that leaves us craving some sort of relief. Dr Sandi Mann, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire who specialises in boredom, defines boredom as a search for neural stimulation that isn't satisfied.
So, if boredom is a negative emotion that calls up feelings of lethargy, stress, impatience and frustration, what causes it, and how do we avoid it?
Why do people get bored?
Just like our animal friends, we experience boredom when we feel physically or mentally trapped. It mostly occurs when we’re asked to do a dull activity that we have little control over.
There are benefits to getting bored of course. Just imagine what would happen if we never got used to all the predictable routines we've developed. We'd be so preoccupied with the same things over and over that we'd lose sight of what really required your attention.
As Dr Mann describes it:
"Everyone would be constantly preoccupied with every minor stimulus to such an extent that they might not attend to real threats."
But boredom doesn't occur every time we have nothing to do. Think about it. When was the last time you really had nothing to keep you busy? Boredom only sets in if you believe that none of your options is appealing enough.
Journalist Kate Green, who spent four months in a simulated Mars mission in Hawaii, said: "One of the great paradoxes of boredom is that it often plagues those in the most exciting of professions: explorers, astronauts, pilots, firefighters, sailors, and soldiers. In these fields, boredom is a real danger because long periods of downtime must be endured between bursts of alertness and adventure.
Rather than blaming a lack of stimulation, psychologist John Eastwood at the University of York says boredom results from our inability to pick something to focus our attention on.
'With nothing to focus your attention away from the passage of time, it seems to go painfully slowly', he says. 'What's more, your efforts to rectify the situation can end up making you feel worse. All emotions tell us how we are in the world. Boredom tells us we have pent-up, unused potential and a desire to connect to the world'.
The opposite of flow
My favourite tongue-twisting academic, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, did some ground-breaking work around the idea of 'optimal experience', e.g. fun.
His research shows that people are at their happiest when they're in a state of 'flow'. Flow occurs when your body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to achieve something difficult and worthwhile.
You'll know you're in flow when you've been so engrossed in whatever it was you were doing that time stood still. An hour may have passed without you even realising it.
I've written about flow at length in a previous article. To experience flow, your skill levels need to be on a par with the complexity of whatever task you're doing. It's a simple equation. If the task is too hard for you, you'll get anxious. If it's too easy, you'll get bored.
You'll only achieve flow when your skills and difficulty level just about match.
Do only boring people get bored?
As someone who rarely gets bored, I'd love to answer that with a resounding yes. But all that question does is reflect a broader cultural bias against boredom, as if this horrible state of mind must be avoided at all cost. Research seems to tell a different story.
The so-called Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS) shows that feelings of monotony particularly affect men, extroverts, narcissists and people who lack self-awareness, as well as those with an anxious disposition. People who are highly competitive and also happen to be attention-seekers seem particularly prone to tedium too.
Overall, two types of people are most susceptible: those who are always on the lookout for intensity on the one hand and those who tend to be quite fearful on the other. This has led some to blame boredom on a heightened desire for stimulation and on low levels of the 'pleasure' neurotransmitter dopamine.
There are others, however, who could turn living on a desolate island or a prison cell into a pleasurable experience. Indeed, people with plenty of curiosity and self-control appear to have a much higher threshold for boredom. They tend to be more in command of their impulses and emotions. Csikszentmihalyi describes them as having an 'autotelic' personality. These people have learned to invoke feelings of flow regardless of their circumstances.
So, to answer the question – it's not dull people who get bored, only captive people. Indeed, nothing generates more boredom than feeling trapped in a situation where you have no control over your choices.
Autotelic personalities simply deal with that boredom much better. They remind themselves that, even if they can't change their circumstances, they still have full control over how to respond to them.
The good, the bad and the public sector employees
Earlier, I set out some evolutionary benefits to feeling bored and how its relative unpleasantness reminds us that there are more important things we should be focusing on.
Psychologist Dr Wijnand van Tilburg believes boredom serves an important psychological function. "It makes people rethink what they are doing in favour of actions that, at least in that moment, are seen as more meaningful… for better or worse", he says.
Indeed, one of the major benefits of tedium is that it allows us to let our creative juices flow more freely. Mann’s research found that participants who were made to feel bored by writing down a series of telephone numbers for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup. Those in the control group who'd gone straight to solving the cup problem struggled a lot more.
Passive and boring activities allow our minds to wander which, in turn, stimulates our creativity. If we could force ourselves to seek out boredom, we might actually become a bit more creative in life.
But despite monotony's regenerative benefits, there's also a strong correlation between boredom and anger. Those prone to lethargy also tend to participate in more risky behaviours like gambling or alcohol and drug abuse. Boredom is also correlated with poor work performance, accidents, absenteeism, errors at work, stress, sleepiness, and a whole string of stress-related health problems.
If you ever watched the cult UK comedy series Yes, Minister, you might remember a sketch where top civil servant Sir Humphrey discusses educational reforms with the Prime Minister.
'Education in this country is a disaster. We're supposed to be preparing children for working life. Three-quarters of the time they're bored stiff!', says the Prime Minister. To which Sir Humphrey drily replies: 'Well I should have thought that being bored stiff for three-quarters of the time was an excellent preparation for working life'.
A 2009 study of British civil servants suggests Sir Humphrey may have been right. Public sector workers who reported the highest levels of boredom were almost 40 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the 25-year study than those who rarely felt bored.
UK civil servants are quite literally boring themselves to death.
Antidotes to boredom
Whether your boredom is situational or existential, there are some useful antidotes.
1. Add meaning to your circumstances
The remedy for a listless life isn't happiness – at least not happiness as in the pursuit of pleasure. Indeed, the opposite of a boring life is one that's rich and meaningful.
Making life more meaningful helps one become a little more selfless. Or, as psychologist Dr Richard Logan says, we need to become nonself-conscious individuals.
'People with that quality are bent on doing their best in all circumstances, yet they are not primarily concerned with advancing their interests. Because they are intrinsically motivated in their actions, they are not easily disturbed by external threats.' – Dr Richard Logan
So, if you feel you've got too much time on your hand, ask yourself: how might I serve? Investing time and resources into making a difference for others is the surest way to lead a more purposeful life.
2. Reclaim control of your inner and outer world
I mentioned earlier that boredom often stems from a lack of autonomy. You've been placed in a situation against your wishes and with little control over it. But even if you can't change the external circumstances that got you there, you still have something called free will.
So, come up with a list of everything you still have control over despite your confinement – or perhaps even because of it. Don't stop until you've written down at least thirty items. You'll be surprised at how much autonomy you've been left with.
Meanwhile, nothing can stop you from making your inner world a little more exhilarating even if you can't find excitement in your immediate surroundings. So, take a break from the news and from social media. Allow your mind to wander and explore your own little fantasy world.
Instead of taking your phone out in the supermarket queue, why not occupy yourself by coming up with ideas for a lovely stew? Or ask yourself why the woman in front of you’s basked only contains duct tape, a kitchen knife and carpet stain remover.
3. Change your personality
Earlier, I highlighted that people with an autotelic personality have an easier time finding happiness and enjoyment in random situations. This personality type is curious and open to a variety of experiences. They pride themselves on taking things in their stride and feel in control, no matter what life throws at them.
According to Csikszentmihalyi, they deal with boredom by:
Paying close attention to the most minute details of their environment. They discover hidden opportunities for action that match their capabilities given the situation and circumstances.
Setting goals appropriate to their precarious situation and closely monitoring progress through the feedback they receive.
Whenever they reach their goal, upping the ante and set increasingly complex challenges for themselves.
None of this is rocket science, and all of these are behaviours that can be learned. Even if they don’t come naturally quite yet, familiarise yourself with them and practise, practise practise. The better you become at this, the less you’ll depend on external factors to make things less dull for you.
Don't let a good crisis go to waste
If you’ve made it this far, it probably means I haven’t bored you to death yet. Boredom is an unpleasant state of mind. But by applying the right mindset, it also provides a great driver for finding more resourceful things to do with your time.
It is not an emotion you should avoid at all costs. Indeed, there are plenty of benefits to wallowing in your monotony. After all, dullness often breeds creativity.
So, don't let boredom opportunities go to waste by numbing it with Instagram memes and Netflix marathons. Use it to practise adding more meaning to your experiences. Take control of your inner world, and start enjoying the small things in life.
Perhaps your current boredom might just be the ticket to a much more vibrant and meaningful life.
