Study Finds Reruns of TV Shows Help Us Cope With Stress

September 11, 2012 5:11 PM

(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

This week the new fall television lineup kicks off with premieres from The Voice and X Factor. Some people though would rather watch another rerun of their favorite show. (Maybe we are watching reruns because many of the the new shows that are being produced just plain Hoover.) Turns out, this might be better for your health.

A new study finds that watching reruns can help people recover after a stressful experience. (Hopefully we won't have a rerun of the 2008 election because that still is very stressful for most Americans.)

It is even believed that spending some time with your favorite characters can be more beneficial to your mood than hanging out with your friends. (I wonder if this would still apply if you were schizophrenic. If you were schizophrenic then you could spend time with all of your favorite characters all at once but I suggest that you make them take turns talking otherwise it could get quite confusing and that is the last thing that you want to have happen when you are talking to yourself.)

I wouldn't want this guy in my session, would you?

Jaye L. Derrick, a research scientist at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions, says this is because there are fewer complications when it comes to your TV friends.

“There are a lot of benefits you can get from close relationships, but there are also a lot of problems,” Derrick says. “You have to put up with someone else’s needs, you have to get through fights, there are conflicts of interest… Fictional worlds can be a way of seeking connection to others without having all the strings attached.” (This sounds like being a politician)

Derrick, whose findings were published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, led two separate studies. One took a look at two different groups of people who were feeling stressed. While one group wrote an essay about their favorite TV show, the other simply wrote about the objects in the room. The group focusing on TV ended up performing better on a mental concentration test.

The other study asked subjects to keep a diary where they wrote about their day, mentioning if they watched reruns of their favorite shows after feeling stressed and how they felt after. Those who did ended up feeling better and less stressed out. (Wait a minute! Maybe the reruns aren't the cure, maybe it is writing down your feelings. I know when I blog I feel better. I don't know if my blogging helps any of my readers but it has helped keep me from becoming a dictator of a Banana Republic in Central America. Thank God for the Internet!)

“With a rerun, you already know what’s going to happen and don’t have to pay as much attention,” she said. (Maybe educators should use this method for raising test scores. Give the kids the same test over and over since they don't seem to be paying attention anyhow and watch those scores rise. Have you seen those test scores lately?) “You’re just enjoying it, getting positive mood benefits, and feeling like you’re there with comfortable people.” ( I wonder if being in a room full of mannequins can have the same effect? How could anyone be uncomfortable around mannequins unless they were evil mannequins.)

Hey, it's like a family reunion

Derrick doesn’t advise you sit around all day watching TV (Not good for your back side), but she does say people shouldn’t feel bad about watching an hour or so of television after work.

So now you don’t have to feel bad about watching those nightly marathons of How I Met You Mother or The Big Bang Theory. You’re just working on stress management. (Nice plug for CBS, huh?)

- Shannon Carlin, CBS Local

Since reruns make you feel good feel free to read this blog again and again.

Leon

Images: Yahoo Images

Feeling good about yourself, that's your job, now get busy.