As our social lives gradually resume their normal course, be careful to still keep some time for yourself.
- Humans are social animals that need to communicate and interact with others.
- But time spent alone can also have health benefits.
If too much loneliness is bad for your health, the reverse is also harmful. “Too little alone time can lead to feelings of stress, depression, or mood swings similar to those generated by loneliness,” Explain the magazine Vicewhich is based on the work of Canadian psychologist Robert Coplan.
Concept creator “of loneliness”, this health professional studied the behavior of teenagers playing alone in playgrounds, and discovered that their isolation had the virtue of calming the stress generated by social interactions and making it possible to take better care of them.
Occasional loners suffer less from depression than others
In his study published last January, Robert J. Coplan notes more specifically that adolescents who spent between 25 and 30% of their day alone had better academic results and suffered less from depression than others.
“Adolescence is a developmental period when spending time alone becomes especially important,” believes the researcher and his team. “Overall, our findings underscore the importance of considering the implications of too much and too little loneliness on adolescent well-being,” they conclude. A balance to be found also in adults.
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