At a glance
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Replacing TV time lowers depression risk: Swapping just one hour of daily TV for other activities reduced the likelihood of major depression, with even bigger benefits for longer time shifts.
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Midlife is a key window: Middle-aged adults saw the strongest effects, with up to a 43% reduction in depression risk when two hours of TV were replaced with other activities.
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Active and restorative activities help most: Exercise, sleep, and active daily tasks were linked to better mental health, with sports showing the strongest protective effect.
A new study published in European Psychiatry suggests that spending less time watching television and reallocating that time to other activities could reduce the risk of major depressive disorder, particularly in middle-aged adults. Researchers found that replacing TV time with activities such as exercise or sleep was associated with meaningful mental health benefits, with the strongest effects seen during midlife.
Lead author Rosa Palazuelos-González highlighted that the study focused on what happens when television time is actively replaced with specific behaviours, rather than simply examining sedentary lifestyles. She said, “We found that reducing TV-watching time by 60 minutes and reallocating it to other activities decreased the likelihood of developing major depression by 11%,” and added, “For 90- and 120-minute reallocations, this decrease in likelihood goes up to 25.91%.”
Middle-aged adults showed the largest improvements. In this group, replacing one hour of daily TV time lowered depression risk by nearly 19%, while reallocating two hours reduced the likelihood by 43%. Most substitutions, including sports, commuting activities, physical activity at work or school, and sleep, were associated with lower risk, with sports showing the strongest protective effect. However, replacing just 30 minutes of TV with household chores did not significantly change depression risk.
Among older adults, redistributing TV time generally did not affect depression rates, except when time was replaced with sports, which led to modest reductions in risk. In younger adults, reallocating TV time to physical activity did not significantly alter depression risk, possibly because this group was already relatively active.
The findings come from the Lifelines cohort study, which followed more than 65,000 Dutch adults without depression at baseline over four years. Participants reported how they spent their time across a range of activities, and diagnoses of major depressive disorder were assessed using a structured clinical interview. Overall, the study suggests that replacing sedentary screen time with more active or restorative behaviours may help protect against depression, particularly during middle age.
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