Notes
This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or psychological advice, and it's no substitute for a GP or a therapist who knows you. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026. Nothing in this book is a treatment for anything.
I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 9, 12, 14, 19, 20, 21, 24 and 25. The walk to the car, the kettle, the post office queue, the shower speaker and the audiobook at night are invented.
Before you start. The NHS page "Tinnitus", for the advice against total silence. The NHS pages on depression, for the two-week guide, and on stress, for self-referral to talking therapies, as verified for earlier books in this series.
Chapter 3. Wilson, Reinhard, Westgate, Gilbert, Ellerbeck, Hahn and colleagues, "Just think: the challenges of the disengaged mind", Science 345, 2014, pages 75 to 77. Eleven studies. Used in the earlier book The phone can wait. The chapter's claim that the finding is about the first minutes and not about quiet as such is my reading.
Chapter 4. Killingsworth and Gilbert, "A wandering mind is an unhappy mind", Science 330, 2010, page 932. Used in the earlier book on the phone as counter-evidence, and here too. The account of the drift as the day being sorted is mine. The earlier book on going over things is It's already over.
Chapter 5. Baird, Smallwood, Mrazek, Kam, Franklin and Schooler, "Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation", Psychological Science 23, 2012, pages 1117 to 1122. Used in the earlier book on the phone. The extension from a laboratory break to a walk after a podcast is mine.
Chapter 6. Westgate and Wilson, "Boring thoughts and bored minds: the MAC model of boredom and cognitive engagement", Psychological Review 125, 2018, pages 689 to 713. The claim that the hum is a demand on attention is my reading of the overstimulation route and not a finding from the paper.
Chapter 7. Eastwood, Frischen, Fenske and Smilek, "The unengaged mind: defining boredom in terms of attention", Perspectives on Psychological Science 7, 2012, pages 482 to 495. Bench and Lench, "On the function of boredom", Behavioral Sciences 3, 2013, pages 459 to 472. Both are theoretical papers with reviews of evidence. The claim that the fill silences the signal without doing its job is mine.
Chapter 8. Mann and Cadman, "Does being bored make us more creative?", Creativity Research Journal 26, 2014, pages 165 to 173. Two small studies, eighty and ninety people, which the chapter says. Baird and colleagues as above.
Chapter 10. Dora and colleagues, "The effect of opportunity costs on mental fatigue in labor/leisure trade-offs", Royal Society Open Science 8, 2021, as verified in full text for the earlier book on the phone. Eighty-three PhD students, exploratory, and the chapter says so.
Chapter 11. The earlier books on the evening and the night are You were tired at ten and Nothing gets solved at three in the morning.
Chapter 13. Wilson and colleagues as above. The two versions and the minute-five test are mine.
Chapter 14. The earlier book on loneliness and ringing people is Ring them first.
Chapter 15. Bench and Lench as above.
Chapter 16. Wilson and colleagues as above. What I say about the itch after five minutes is my observation and not a finding.
Chapter 17. Baird and colleagues, Mann and Cadman, Wilson and colleagues, and Bench and Lench as above. The rest is mine.
Chapter 18. The NHS page "5 steps to mental wellbeing", for paying attention to the present moment. Baird and colleagues as above. The earlier book on reaching for something at the first flicker of a feeling is The feeling will pass without help. The list is mine.
Chapter 22. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.
Chapter 23. The NHS page "Tinnitus" as above, including the Tinnitus UK helpline. The NHS pages on depression, stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as verified for earlier books. Baird and colleagues as above.