【英文原文】

We’ve all been bored from time to time. Sometimes, when we’re really at loose ends, we might even say we’re “bored to death” or “so bored I could die!”

We don’t really mean it, of course.

But according to one study, it may be true. That is, it seems possible literally to be bored to death. Researchers in England looked at surveys done in the mid 1980s–several thousand questionnaires filled out by London civil servants about their jobs.

The researchers found that those who’d said that in the previous month they were bored at work were more than twice as likely as other workers to die of a heart problem over the follow up period. Workers who claimed to be interested in their jobs were less likely to die prematurely.

Now, this doesn’t mean that feeling bored every once in a while will kill you. We’re talking about chronic boredom, as in being bored all the time.

And it’s not necessarily boredom itself that’s deadly. Most probably, according to the study, it’s the fact that being bored often leads to unhealthy habits such smoking, overeating, drinking, and abusing drugs.

Other studies have linked boredom and depression–a disease known often to lead to poor health.

Does this mean that being engaged and interested–in other words, the opposite of bored–leads to better health?

Maybe. If not being bored means being physically active and adopting good dietary and exercise habits, then it certainly can’t hurt.