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Research: Benefits Of Solitude For Restoration, Growth & Peace

By January 13, 2025Blog
solitude research benefits

Solitude In A Hyperconnected World

The world is a busy, at times chaotic, place, hyperconnected to an unhealthy, and sometimes creepy, level. Companies trying to get your email address to send you a digital receipt when you are physically stood less than a meter away from them. People being able to contact you via various methods 24/7. Yet, undoubtedly, one person’s idea of progress can be another person’s idea of suffocation.

Life, too, can be busy and chaotic for some. Some have very busy lives with lots of demands on their time, energy and focus, whilst at the other end of the spectrum, others have very leisurely daily lives that require little from them.

So, when we think about restorative practices, it is unlikely that one rule fits all which is why it is always important to listen to your own mind and body and use them as a gauge for what you need right now, or at least at some point during your day, in order to boost your resilience, wellbeing, mental clarity, and more.

But can research on the subject give us that sweet spot, the right balance between solitude and socialising? After all, we are social creatures but we also have a daily, finite amount of energy, attention, and other such resources.

 

Balance Between Solitude And Socialising

Researchers set out to see if there was a perfect amount of time people should dedicate to solitude, a sufficient period that gives enough time for relaxation and reconnection with oneself without becoming so much time that it feels lonely and isolating [1]. In other words, reaping wellbeing benefits and stopping short of it tipping into wellbeing costs.

Their results yielded no such perfect amount of time for solitude.

However, they did find both positive and negative wellbeing outcomes of time spent in solitude on a given day, namely, reduced stress and greater autonomy, and feeling less satisfied and lonelier, respectively.

They also found that choosing solitude can help reduce or completely diminish the negative wellbeing effects. And that those who generally spent more time alone were not, on the whole, lonelier.

 

Restoration And Relatedness Across Shades Of Solitude

In a new study, researchers looked at ‘shades of solitude’ to see how differing degrees of solitude produced different wellbeing effects [2].

This is important as we are social creatures living in a hyperconnected world and complete solitude could take away from feeling connected with others, thus being detrimental to our wellbeing.

The researchers used four shades of solitude (see below), either including or excluding both analog and digital media (e.g. books and artwork, and social media and television, respectively), whilst also assessing ‘relatedness’ (e.g. feeling ‘close and connected with other people who are important to me’).

Importantly, all four shades of solitude required participants to have no interaction with others:

(i)  Base Solitude (can remain accessible to others and engage with media);
(ii) Base Solitude + Inaccessibility (are inaccessible to others but can engage with media);
(iii) Base Solitude + No Media (cannot engage with media but can remain accessible to others);
(iv) Total Solitude (are both inaccessible to others and cannot engage with media).

They found that the highest sum of restoration and relatedness (best wellbeing outcomes) came from the Base Solitude experience, which meant no interaction with others whilst still not being completely cut off from others, knowing that one was accessible to others and that one could still feel connected to others by viewing media. This was followed by Base Solitude + No Media, Base Solitude + Inaccessibility, and Total Solitude.

Notably, though, those who perceived solitude to be associated with higher restoration and relatedness, found it less detrimental to their wellbeing as assessed in terms of life satisfaction (e.g. ‘In most ways my life is close to ideal’), emotional wellbeing (e.g. ‘I feel calm and peaceful’), and loneliness (e.g. ‘I lack companionship).

 

Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood

In the last study I’ll cover, researchers looked at how (a) one’s motivation for solitude and (b) one’s experience of peaceful mood within solitude, differed across the lifespan by utilising questionnaires to extract narratives as well as quantifiable data from three age groups: adolescents (13–16 years), adults (35–55 years), and older adults (59–85 years) [3].

They found that, in sum, solitude was seen to be a positive experience across all the age groups, albeit sometimes for different reasons.

Adolescents appreciated the opportunity solitude afforded them to feel competent and to experience self-growth.

Adults were mainly motivated towards solitude for self-growth and competence, but of the three groups, they were the group most likely to report disrupted wellbeing as a result of time spent in solitude, experienced as a loss of familiarity, lack of structure, inactivity, or missing human contact.

Older adults were much less interested in the opportunities for self-growth that solitude presented, but they were motivated by autonomy, allowing them to feel self-reliant and connect with themselves, and they were the age group most likely to report feeling peaceful as a result of solitude.

 

One Size Does Not Fit All, And That’s Absolutely Fine

I really love the finding in the new study [2] that a more incomplete form of solitude where one is still accessible to others and can still engage with media was, overall, the most restorative whilst still allowing one to feel connected to others. Because it feels so much more achievable for most people, and is actually what I describe as ‘me-time’ in my books in the self-care chapters. It’s a malleable chunk of time that you use as you see fit whilst having time to yourself. Autonomy.

The use of shades of solitude not only demonstrated that, on the whole, a more incomplete form of solitude (their Base Solitude condition) produced the best wellbeing effects overall, but that you can choose the degree of solitude that you need. And options are important because everyone has different needs and motivations for solitude, and life’s current circumstances will further shape your current needs and motivations, including your mental state, the challenges you are facing, and the opportunities available to you.

Remember also that feeling connected to other human beings can (but not always depending on your mental health) help you to feel calmer, safer. So that may be why you better reap the benefits of more incomplete solitude when you need it. It might also be that you strictly need time out from everyone except one or two people that make you feel safe and loved.

 

An Emotional Roller Coaster Can Be A Good Thing

You might know you need some time out, but you may not know what sort of emotional upheaval it will bring. So when it comes to having some me-time for self-growth, remember that it might be a difficult time, as reported by the adults in the lifespan study [3], but a great use of your time all in all.

Think short-term pain for long-term gains. Some of the best turning points in life come from the deepest frustration, difficulties and/or emotional pain.

And time out from the world can be a brilliant way to focus on programming the ‘sat nav’ in your mind by identifying where you are (your starting point, ‘A’), where you want to be (your destination, ‘B’), and creating a plan of action to achieve that transformation (the journey from ‘A’ to ‘B’).

 

Minimise The Negative And Maximise The Positive

Remember that solitude can produce both positive and negative wellbeing effects, e.g. reduce stress and increase feelings of autonomy, and reduce satisfaction and increase loneliness, respectively [1], so be sure to undertake a solitude activity that will help your wellbeing rather than inadvertently hinder it.

For some that might mean a silent retreat in Bali. For others that could mean having some me-time in a room at home whilst their spouse and children honour their needs for solitude by creating no interruptions, all whilst being comforted by the feeling of connectedness that still remains from the patter of feet and sounds of laughter nearby.

And make sure you are opting for solitude happily rather than begrudgingly, and see it as good for you, as choosing solitude [1] and perceiving solitude to be beneficial [2], can negate any negative wellbeing effects.

 

Choose A Solitude Activity That Fits You

We have seen that solitude can take different forms and that still feeling connected to others whilst also practicing a form of solitude that suits you, can be beneficial for your wellbeing. So think outside the box.

Think about what would be the most restorative form of solitude for you. Would it be spending a weekend alone in a cottage with no internet and no phone reception? Or sitting on a park bench listening to music whilst still surrounded by other humans? Or going for a hike, solo? Or working out in the gym, earphones in, with no communication with others?

The only way you will work out what works best for you is to try something, if it doesn’t work, try something else. If it works, great! And then consider exploring more forms of solitude so that you eventually build up an arsenal of solitude activities that work for you, that are varied, and then you can pick the one that suits you and your needs the most each time you know your mind/body is yearning for some solitude.

Some of the keywords that pop out when looking at the above studies into solitude, are:

Wellbeing; Restoration; Autonomy; Self-growth; Competence; Peacefulness.

Use these to help you decide which you are most motivated by when you think about carving out some time for solitude away from everyone’s demands on your time, attention and energy, and ensure you take that me-time for yourself, guilt-free, ideally daily, even if just briefly. There is a power in solitude. Use it to your advantage.

 

References

1. Weinstein, N., Vuorre, M., Adams, M., & Nguyen, T. (2023). Balance between solitude and socializing: everyday solitude time both benefits and harms well-being. Scientific Reports, 13, 21160. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44507-7

2. Ross, M. Q., & Campbell, S. W. (2024). The tradeoff of solitude? Restoration and relatedness across shades of solitude. PLoS ONE 19(12): e0311738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311738

3. Weinstein, N., Nguyen, T. V., & Hansen, H. (2021). What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 714518. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714518

 

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