Your boss busts you watching videos of puppies playing with ducklings (that's below if you want to see it at the 7:40 mark). Well what do you say? Now you can say 'My Doc says I need to watch 30 minutes of these videos a day'! Of course the boss will probably say watch them at home but at least you had an answer.
According to a new studyfrom the University of Leeds in the U.K., watching images and videos of adorable animals may help ease stress and anxiety.
The study finds viewing 30 minutes of cute critters lowers blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety. The research was done on college students during winter exams, a time when stress levels are high, and in each participant, a half hour of cuteness left them feeling less stressed and anxiety levels went down by 35%. And the most appealing to watch? Videos over still images, especially those with animals interacting with humans.
“I was quite pleasantly surprised that during the session, every single measure for every single participant dropped some,” says researcher Dr. Andrea Utley.