Why sitting on the couch (without your phone) is good for you
Research shows that when leisure is consciously chosen and when you can enjoy it without feeling guilty, the mental health benefits are greatest
The gradual unwinding that a holiday brings is familiar to many. The first day or two is spent thinking about work projects... problems at home... all the things waiting for you when you get back. Usually by about day-three, the holiday takes over. You find yourself focusing on the sunshine, the feeling of warmth in your bones, and relishing plans for what’s left of the holiday. Your brain is rewarding you with the benefits of having been rested.
Now, new research published in JAMA 2025 demonstrates what happens when the brain has little opportunity to wander. Associate chief for research in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University, Roy Perlis, and his co-authors discovered a dose-response link between irritability and social media use in adults. Previous studies have found high levels of social media use are linked to depression. Higher levels of irritability were associated with time spent on social media, number of postings as well as active engagement.
The authors suggest that the frequency and duration of social media use matter. Rather than picking up the phone every few minutes throughout the day, setting aside a time (or times) to enter the online community you are part of may be more rewarding. Research shows that when leisure is consciously chosen and when you can enjoy it without feeling guilty, the mental health benefits are greatest.
Restricting social media to specific times of the day gives the brain a chance for some much- needed downtime.
Even before the arrival of the societal deluge of social media, a LexisNexis survey (2010) of 1,700 white collar workers in the US, China, South Africa, Britain, and Australia found that on average, employees spent more than half their working days receiving and managing information rather than using it to do their jobs. Added to that, half of the surveyed workers also confessed they were reaching a breaking point after which they would not be able to accommodate the deluge of data.
But what if the brain needs substantial amounts of downtime to remain industrious and generate its most innovative ideas?
The research seems to support this view. A whole body of evidence supports the overwhelming benefits of holidays, meditation, time spent outdoors, and how napping and unwinding while awake can sharpen the mind.
What the research demonstrates is that, rather than the brain shutting down during these periods of mental inactivity, many brain processes require inactive periods during the day. These downtime periods are essential to productivity, creativity, forming stable memories, and even reasserting our moral compass as we mull over how we manage everyday circumstances in our day.
In the mid-90s, Marcus Raichle of Washington University found that MRI scans taken during periods of both activity and rest revealed that particular areas of the brain become inactive during complex problem-solving but begin to fire in synchrony when the participants let their minds wander.
Further research confirmed these findings. These particular circuits that fired during daydreaming were eventually identified as the default mode network (DMN). It is now known that there are at least five DMNs — aligned with vision, hearing, movement, attention and memory.
In a research review published in Perspectives on Psychological Science (2012), entitled ‘Rest is not idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education,’ Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of the University of California and her co-authors, argued that the when we are resting the brain is anything but idle and that far from being purposeless or unproductive, downtime is essential to mental processes that affirm our identities and develop our understanding of human behaviour.
Added to that, the researchers argued that downtime instils an internal code of ethics that is underpinned by the DNM circuits that mull over every event and how it was handled as we went through our day.
When we daydream on the couch or even at our desks in a classroom or at work, we are replaying conversations and rewriting verbal blunders as a way of avoiding making the same mistakes again. We think of all those jobs half-done or essays half-written, or aspects of our lives that we are uncomfortable about and subject ourselves to a moral performance review.
In terms of social media, the authors suggest that overuse impacts the time given to daydreaming. Maybe that is why overuse has a tendency to make us irritable.
Further research from the Harvard Business School (2009) tracked the work habits of employees at the Boston Consulting Group over four years. Employees were required to take regular time off each year even when they did not think they should be away from the office. This included some workers taking one day off a week and others scheduling one weekly night of uninterrupted personal time, even though they were used to working from home in the evenings.
After five months, employees who took deliberate periodic rest were more content with their work-life balance, happier with their jobs, and prouder of their accomplishments.
Instead of coming home from work and finishing off last-minute tasks or answering emails, the evidence suggests that periods of deliberate inactivity are essential for productivity, creativity, memory and moral compass.
Banish the guilt. Sitting on the couch with your phone turned off or out of reach and letting your mind wander is good for mind, body and soul.
- Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork
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