If you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed during this time of COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders, you have plenty of company. Robin Nabi, a professor of communication at UC Santa Barbara, just might have a way to help — and you don’t even have to leave the couch.

In a paper in the Journal of Communication, Nabi details the results of an experiment that suggests “prescribing” viewing of entertainment media can alleviate stress, promote calmness and improve goal attainment.

“People have different reactions, naturally, to stressful situations,” Nabi said of coping strategies during the pandemic. “Some people will read more news and try to get a lot of information, and some people just want to escape and be distracted from it all.”

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