They were also asked about their feelings of guilt, procrastination and whether they felt their downtime had been effective in re-energising them.

Dr. Leonard Reinecke, the study’s lead author, said:

“We are beginning to better understand that media use can have beneficial effects for people’s well-being through media-induced recovery.

Our present study is an important step towards a deeper understanding of this.

It demonstrates that in real life the relationship between media use and well-being is complicated and that the use of media may conflict with other, less pleasurable but more important duties and goals in everyday life.”

One possible implication of the finding is that going easier on yourself about how you spend much-needed down-time may be beneficial.

Feeling guilty about relaxing when you are exhausted means that you end up failing to relax properly.

It is much better to kick back and totally absorb yourself in your favourite TV show or video game and feel the benefits.

Source: PSY.BLOG