Me-time can be good! Study asserts the boons of pandemic solitude

Apart from the mental health impact of Covid-19 itself, many reports have spoken of the adverse effects of restrictions on social life amid the pandemic. But new research from the UK claims that it may not be all bad news.

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In fact, the time spent alone during the pandemic months has been linked to positive effects on well-being across all age groups in a new study. Published in Frontiers in Psychology, the research has been based on interviews of over 2,000 teens and adults conducted around the end of UK’s first national lockdown in summer 2020.

The study says that most participants described their pandemic solitude period with feelings of competence and autonomy. The feelings of competence were based on time spent on skill-building and new activities while the autonomous feeling was attributed to self-connection and reliance on self.

The most negative experiences from solitude were reported by working-age adults with 35.6 per cent mentioning disrupted well-being. The team explained that this may be because this age group lost the most in terms of pockets of personal time such as their commute or a work break.

All in all, the study remarked on the importance of 'peaceful moments' for overall well-being.

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