Can You Die of Boredom?

Although references to the idea of boredom stretch back to the Greek philosophers, the word did not enter the written English language until 1766. Afterward, literature exploded with musing on it, including works by Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, who called boredom "the desire for desires." [source: Martin et al].

Everyone knows what boredom feels like, but even after hundreds of years of identifying boredom as a plague upon life, no scientific consensus exists of what exactly it is [source: Martin et al]. One reason lies in rooting out the source of boredom, akin to the clichéd "chicken or the egg" question. As mentioned earlier, boredom can arise from both external and internal stimuli, muddying the answer to that question.

Scientists do know something about brain activity in high-risk, boredom-prone people. When 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 [source: Schneider et al]. In this light, boredom may serve as the lackluster yin to our yang of excitement and pleasure.

Although the part of our brain controlling the boredom response remains unclear, patients with damage to their frontal cortex experience greater risk-taking urges along with boredom proneness. Interestingly, the frontal cortex also controls our perception of time, which could be linked to the sensation of time passing more slowly when we're bored [source: Gosline].

How can we combat this elusive pest? A study found that people who reported feelings of boredom more frequently tried to alleviate it with brief distractions including work breaks or doing laundry. But these boredom Band-Aids soon failed [source: Martin et al]. On the other hand, people who meditated, engaged with other people or accepted the boredom were more successful.

Likewise, finding new interests or hobbies, physical exercise and mindfulness have all been shown to reduce boredom [source: Gosline]. One study of teenagers found that those with strong interests had significantly higher self-esteem and overall well-being than bored ones [source: Hunter and Csikszentmihalyi].

When searching for an activity, psychologists recommend finding an optimal amount of ease and challenge, called flow [source: Friedman]. In essence, flow means getting into a groove, like a 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.

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