Boredom has a bad reputation, and it mostly earns it by being uncomfortable. But there is a fair case that it does something useful, as long as you let it.
The honest version is smaller than the headlines. Boredom is not a supplement for your brain. It is a state with one or two interesting effects, and the research behind them is limited.
Can boredom actually be good for you?
In one narrow way, yes: it may help creativity.
In a study by Mann and Cadman, people who first did a boring task (copying phone numbers) then generated more creative uses for plastic cups.
Source: Mann & Cadman (2014), Creativity Research Journal.
That is a lab task about cups, so it is a hint rather than a promise. But it matches a plain observation most people recognise: some of your better ideas arrive in the shower, on a walk, or while washing up.
Does being bored help your brain?
Possibly through mind-wandering, though that link is an assumption rather than something these studies show.
Baird and colleagues found that an undemanding task during a break, one that let people's minds drift, improved their creative solutions to problems they had already started.
Source: Baird et al. (2012), Psychological Science.
The useful detail is "problems they had already started". The drift seems to work on something you have already put effort into. Boredom is not a blank slate that generates ideas from nothing.
Is a wandering mind a happy one?
Not necessarily, and this is worth being honest about.
Killingsworth and Gilbert sampled people's experiences throughout the day. Minds wandered about 47% of the time, and people were less happy when they did.
Source: Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010), Science.
So the case for boredom is not that it feels good. It usually does not. The case is that a mind left to wander can do some useful work, while the same state can also drift toward worry. Both are true.
Why do we avoid being bored so badly?
Because it can be uncomfortable enough that some people will choose to hurt themselves to escape it.
In a well-known set of experiments, many participants chose to give themselves a mild electric shock rather than sit alone with their thoughts for 6 to 15 minutes. That was 67% of the men and 25% of the women.
Source: Wilson et al. (2014), Science.
It is a striking result. The study did not look at phones, but it is tempting to wonder whether part of the pull of a phone is that it spares us a feeling many of us find hard to sit with. That is speculation, not a finding.
Many of those reaches are not prompted by anything outside you. In an observational study of real-life use, about 89% of smartphone interactions were started by the user rather than by a notification.
Source: Heitmayer & Lahlou (2021), Computers in Human Behavior.
Is any boredom good, or only some kinds?
The research above does not separate kinds, so this part is observation rather than finding.
Boredom that you meet briefly and then act on, by walking, tidying, looking out of a window or starting something, seems to be the version people describe as useful. Boredom that lasts for months and comes with flatness or low mood is a different matter, and worth talking to someone about. A pleasant-sounding benefit does not make persistent low mood something to tough out.
What does a good dose of boredom look like?
It is smaller than you might expect, and it does not need to be dramatic.
- Leave the gap alone for a few minutes. Queues, lifts, the walk to the shop. Not an hour of enforced emptiness.
- Pick an undemanding activity. Washing up, walking, folding laundry. These keep your hands busy and your mind free.
- Bring a problem along. Given the Baird result, an unfinished problem seems to give the wandering something to chew on.
- Expect it to feel mildly bad first. That is the normal price of entry, not a sign you are doing it wrong.
None of this needs an app. If you find you cannot hold the gap alone, Boredom's Daily Reset is three guided minutes placed inside it, so you have something to lean on until the urge passes.
The short version
Boredom is good for you in a modest, specific way: it can leave room for a wandering mind to do some creative work, especially on problems you have already started.
It is not pleasant, it is not a cure for anything, and the research on it is limited. But the discomfort is not a sign that something is wrong with you. It is the ordinary cost of letting your mind do something other than take in input.