The shelf · Loneliness and solitude
Does Solitude hold up?
Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone, by Netta Weinstein, Heather Hansen and Thuy-vy Nguyen (2024)
Three researchers summarise the experimental and diary research on when time alone helps and when it harms.
The short answer
Chosen, short solitude helps; long, unchosen aloneness harms. The claim of lower heart-disease risk has no population evidence behind it.
The claims, checked
Time alone is linked to lower cortisol and lower risk of heart disease.
Contested No population evidence was found that solitude lowers heart-disease risk. The large body of evidence links isolation and living alone to higher risk.
Evidence: Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015
Aloneness that is not chosen can be debilitating.
Holds Consistent with the evidence on mortality and with the World Health Organization's 2025 Commission on Social Connection.
Evidence: World Health Organization, 2025