Quiet Wall

Can you die of boredom? What the study found

Quiet Wall ·

What the 2010 "bored to death" study found, why its authors called boredom a proxy for other risks, and why a few chosen empty minutes are different.

"Bored to death" is an everyday way of saying "completely bored", as the Cambridge Dictionary puts it. The 2010 study behind the "bored to death" headlines did not show that boredom itself kills anyone, and its authors pointed to other risk factors instead.

Where the "bored to death" headlines come from

In 2010, the epidemiologists Annie Britton and Martin Shipley of University College London published a short paper called Bored to death? in the International Journal of Epidemiology. They used the Whitehall II study, which follows London civil servants.

Between 1985 and 1988, people aged 35 to 55 had been asked whether they had felt bored in the past four weeks. The authors checked who had died by April 2009. Leaving out anyone who already had cardiovascular disease, that was 7,524 men and women.

People who had reported a great deal of boredom had about two and a half times the rate of cardiovascular deaths of people who reported none, a hazard ratio of 2.53 after adjusting for age and sex. After also adjusting for job grade, physical activity and self-rated health, it fell to 1.96 and was no longer statistically significant. For deaths from any cause, the difference was not statistically significant.

The authors concluded that boredom was "almost certainly a proxy for other risk factors." Speaking to the Associated Press, they said boredom alone was not likely to kill anyone but could be a sign of drinking, smoking, drugs or a psychological problem.

What long-term boredom is linked to

In the same data, people who reported more boredom were also more likely to rate their health as worse, to be in lower job grades and to be less active. The study could not separate boredom from those other things.

Psychologists also separate two kinds of boredom: transient boredom, which belongs to a situation and passes, and chronic boredom, which lasts for an extended, indefinite time.

If boredom has turned into a lasting emptiness or low mood, that is something to talk to a doctor about.

Chosen boredom is a different thing

Being stuck in boredom for months, with no way out, is one thing. A few empty minutes you pick yourself, which end when you said they would, is another.

Think of arriving five minutes early for an appointment. One option is to take out the phone. The other is to leave those five minutes empty and see what they are like. That second option is what this site suggests, in small, chosen amounts.

Letting a few minutes stay empty

Quiet Wall is that as a timer: a reminder arrives, the phone goes across the room, and you look at a blank wall until a sound brings you back. A few minutes, chosen, with a set end.

Can you literally die of boredom?

A 2010 study of London civil servants, the source of the "bored to death" headlines, did not show that boredom itself kills. It found more cardiovascular deaths among people who reported a great deal of boredom, but the difference was no longer statistically significant after adjusting for job grade, physical activity and self-rated health, and the authors called boredom almost certainly a proxy for other risk factors.

What does "dying of boredom" mean?

It is an everyday exaggeration for being completely bored, as in "I was bored to death".

Is boredom bad for you?

Ordinary boredom, the kind that comes with a queue or a slow afternoon and passes, is part of everyday life. In the best-known study, people who reported a lot of boredom were also more likely to rate their health as worse and to be less active, and the study could not separate boredom from those things. If boredom has turned into a lasting emptiness or low mood, talk to a doctor.

Is chronic boredom dangerous?

The best-known study linked a great deal of reported boredom to a higher rate of cardiovascular deaths, but after adjusting for job grade, physical activity and self-rated health the link was weaker and no longer statistically significant. It did not show that boredom causes illness or death.

Read on