Can You Really Die of Boredom?

No, you can't literally die of boredom -- but it can lead to some high-risk behaviors. Learn more about boredom, ennui, and how to shake them in this episode of BrainStuff, based on these articles: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/bored-to-death.htm; https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/ennui

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brainsty a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff.
Lauren vogelbam here ever felt bored to tears? Maybe it
was yesterday flipping through a thousand streaming options and not
liking any of them. Or maybe it's just the daily
grind of work, dinner, and chores that never seems to change.

(00:26):
Boredom is sort of an emotional oxymoron. Your mind itches
for something to do, but your body doesn't respond. What
happens when that flatlined feeling doesn't go away? Could you
really die of boredom? We sometimes call chronic boredom on Wei,
characterized by listlessness, discontent, and sadness, a kind of mental weariness.

(00:52):
On Wei is a French word that English speakers adopted
around the sixteen to seventeen hundreds, with roots in the
same words that gave us terms like annoying and odious,
which boredom certainly is. References to the idea of boredom
stretch back to the ancient philosophers, but the word boredom
didn't appear until these seventeen to eighteen hundreds, after which

(01:14):
literature exploded with musings on it. Tolstoy called boredom the
desire for desires, Boredom and on we are difficult to study.
They're distinct from depression. Although they are associated, they can
be difficult to pin down. It's not like there's a
blood test for these emotional states, and they seem to
arise from a combination of both external and internal stimuli.

(01:38):
For the article of this episode is based on How
Stuff Works. Spoke via email with Aaron C. Westgate, PhD,
an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida.
She said, boredom, like all emotions, does not have a
one to one mapping with symptoms or expressions. Or rather,
we can feel bored in different ways at different times,

(01:59):
just like we can feel anger and other emotions in
a variety of ways, from quiet frustration at a late
colleague to rage at a person who is harmed a
loved one. Empirical evidence suggests that boredom, for instance, is
sometimes associated with heightened physiological arousal like a fast heart rate,
and sometimes with low arousal like a slow heart rate,

(02:19):
lower blood pressure, et cetera. Thus, there's likely no one
way that on weave or chronic boredom feels run of
the mill. Boredom alone won't kill you, but in a
roundabout way, it can pose problems. Some personalities that gravitate
toward high risk lifestyles also experience chronic boredom. How Stuff

(02:43):
Works also spoke via email with Emily Edlin, PhD, a
clinical psychologist and practicing therapist. She said, neurological studies suggest
that some people, like thrill seekers, need more stimulation to
release the brain's pleasure and reward chemicals. For some reason,
men are more likely to fall in this category. When

(03:03):
we experience joy and excitement in a new situation, a
chemical messenger or neurotransmitter called dopamine triggers that response in
our brains. It appears that high risk, boredom prone people
may have naturally lower levels of dopamine, meaning that they
require a heightened sense of novelty to stimulate their brains.

(03:25):
ONWI is more likely to be experienced by people with
mental disorders, and perhaps especially attention disorders like ADHD. People
with brain injuries to their frontal cortex experience more boredom
and greater risk taking urges too. Interestingly, the frontal cortex
also controls our perception of time, which could be linked

(03:45):
to the sensation of time passing more slowly when we're bored.
It also seems that people with low self awareness about
their emotions are more prone to ANWI, Edlin said. The
theory is that they do not have awareness about what
provides them satisfaction. While science doesn't completely understand the relationship

(04:06):
between boredom and risk taking, it can spiral into danger.
A study about boredom published in twenty ten in the
International Journal of Epidemiology concluded those with a great deal
of boredom were more likely to die during follow up
than those not bored at all. In particular, they were
more likely to die from a cardiovascular disease fatal event. However,

(04:29):
the state of boredom is almost certainly a proxy for
other risk factors. In other words, the people in the
study weren't dying of literal boredom, but boredom led them
to unhealthy behaviors like excessive drinking, smoking, and use of
other drugs. In cases like these, boredem simultaneously serves as

(04:50):
a symptom and a stimulant for adverse behavior. People may
not have the coping mechanisms and ability to put circumstances
in perspective to overcome borda leading to continuous dissatisfaction. Issues
around gambling are also associated, so how can we combat
this elusive pest. A study found the people who reported

(05:13):
feelings of boredom frequently tried to alleviate it with brief distractions,
including work breaks or doing laundry, but these boredom band
aids soon failed. On the other hand, people who engaged
with other people or practiced findfulness were more successful. It's
not easy to change our reactions to things, but you

(05:34):
can try to revamp your thoughts about tasks that cause boredom.
For example, if you're a student working on math problems
that you find boring, you can remind yourself that these
exercises are part of reaching your future goals. Mild boredom
can be thought of as a normal part of the
human experience, a contrast that sets off the fun and

(05:55):
beautiful moments. You can thus try to reframe boredom as
okay and not something to immediately get rid of. Edlin said,
the more often we allow ourselves to feel boredom not
automatically picking up our phones, the more opportunities we have
to tolerate it and use it to channel innovative and

(06:16):
creative thinking. In fact, children who figure out how to tolerate
boredom through their own creativity and not by depending on others,
are more likely to manage it better as adults. All
that said, while you're working on mindfulness, shifting gears and
starting in on some other activity can help in the
short run. A Westgate said, people can do something else

(06:39):
entirely in hopes that the new activity will be a
better attentional fit that is not too hard, not too easy,
and more meaningful than their current task. When searching for
an activity, psychologists recommend finding an optimal amount of ease
and challenge called flow. In essence, flow means getting into

(07:02):
a groove like our runner's high or hitting a tennis
ball back and forth. It demands more skill and agility
than tedious tasks, but at a low enough intensity that
you reap the mental reward of accomplishment in the longer run.
Engaging with healthy interests or hobbies, picking up new ones,
and getting in more physical exercise have all been shown

(07:24):
to reduce boredom for someone in the middle of own wei.
This kind of advice is at least as annoying as
boredom itself, but it's definitely worth a try to get
yourself feeling engaged with the world again. Today's episode is
based on the articles can You Die of Boredom? Written

(07:46):
by Kristin Konger and Embracing on wi How Boredom Can
Be Good for You written by Leah Hoyt on HowStuffWorks
dot com. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in
partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
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