🧠 Depression risk drops up to 43%

Dutch researchers tracked 65,454 adults for 4 years, they found one daily habit change that works

February 15, 2026

Dutch researchers tracked 65,454 adults for four years. None had depression at baseline. They measured one thing: what happens when you replace TV time with literally anything else.

Swapping just 60 minutes of daily TV for other activities cut depression risk by 11%. 

Ninety minutes: Risk dropped 25.91%.

Two full hours: Depression likelihood plummeted by 43% in middle-aged adults (and 26% overall).

Here's what's happening in your brain: TV is passive consumption. Your brain isn't solving problems, building connections, or moving your body. It's just receiving. Over time, activities that actively protect your mental health, movement, sleep, social interaction, problem-solving, get displaced. Dopamine regulation weakens. BDNF (the protein that grows new neurons) stays suppressed. Cortisol stays elevated.

Month after month, year after year, your depression risk compounds.

The researchers tested every possible substitution:

  • Replacing 30 minutes of TV with sports: Depression risk dropped 18%.

  • Physical activity at work or school: Down 10.21%.

  • Leisure activities: Down 8%. Even sleep showed a 9% reduction.

Sports delivered the biggest protection. It wasn't even close.

I'm not saying never watch TV. I'm saying the trade-off is real. Every hour on the couch is an hour you could spend moving, sleeping, reading, building something, or doing anything that demands something from your brain.

—Ernest

Research Reference

Palazuelos-González, R., et al. (2025). Effects of substituting TV-watching time with physical activities or sleep on incident major depression. European Psychiatry, 68(1). DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2025.10045

Check out previous issues @ EnhancingBrain.com