Irish Daily Mail

SCREEN TIME

How what you watch affects your health

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THIS week: Nature shows are good for the heart

IF YOU’RE a big fan of Blue Planet II — or even just kitten videos on the internet — your heart will thank you for it.

A study of 100 people at Queen’s University Belfast, published in the journal Stress and Health, found that heart rate and blood pressure fell faster after a stressful experience when people watched videos of animals than when they put on a soap opera.

‘Watching some animals, such as fish, can be hypnotic to the viewer, perhaps creating a stress-busting effect by helping to induce a dream-like state,’ says study author Dr Deborah Wells. ‘Even watching animals that exhibit higher levels of activity, such as birds and primates, can still have a calming effect.’

In other words, when you watch animals you go into a sort of soothing daydream. ‘We don’t know exactly why, but we are programmed to have an emotional connection with animals, and this so-called “biophilia” may have some role to play,’ she says.

Pick your programme carefully, though, as Dr Wells isn’t sure whether more stimulatin­g animal shows will work as well as the neutral videos used in the study.

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