Humans are social animals. Our well-being depends on the company of others.

The research linking loneliness to depression, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems is so conclusive that doctors now mention social isolation in the same breath as smoking and a sedentary lifestyle when discussing major public health risks. As the song says, everybody needs somebody sometimes.

But just as not all who wander are lost, not all who spend time alone are lonely. While the work on social isolation has tended to attract most of the research dollars and media attention — and that’s been doubly true since pandemic lockdowns forced many of us apart — there’s a smaller but nonetheless significant body of work showing that, far from being a problem, spending time on your own is both fruitful and healthy. “Researchers have tended to pay more attention to the maladaptive side of solitude — that wanting to be alone is symptomatic of depression or social withdrawal or something unfavorable, ” says Thuy-vy Nguyen, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Durham in the U.K. “But when you ask people, many report that time spent alone is something they really enjoy.”

But just as not all who wander are lost, not all who spend time alone are lonely.

While the work on social isolation has tended to attract most of the research dollars and media attention — and that’s been doubly true since pandemic lockdowns forced many of us apart — there’s a smaller but nonetheless significant body of work showing that, far from being a problem, spending time on your own is both fruitful and healthy. “Researchers have tended to pay more attention to the maladaptive side of solitude — that wanting to be alone is symptomatic of depression or social withdrawal or something unfavorable,

While the work on social isolation has tended to attract most of the research dollars and media attention — and that’s been doubly true since pandemic lockdowns forced many of us apart — there’s a smaller but nonetheless significant body of work showing that, far from being a problem, spending time on your own is both fruitful and healthy. “Researchers have tended to pay more attention to the maladaptive side of solitude — that wanting to be alone is symptomatic of depression or social withdrawal or something unfavorable,