SOLITUDE SOLUTIONS

Shut the door, switch off your phone. Science says being alone is good for us

- by IAN TAYLOR

Human beings are social animals. We evolved in groups and conquered the world in great big family units that we call civilisations. At a fundamental level, we need the company of other people.

So why is it that, every once in a while, I wish I had the planet to myself? I like to think of myself as a humanist, a pluralist, a generally nice chap. But sometimes - and it's not that infrequent to tell you the truth - I'd like the seething mass of humanity around me to just, sort of, be gone.

Of course, there are 8 billion of us, so I'm not - ahem - alone in this. The desire to be by yourself can be every bit as strong as our instinct to seek out friends and family. Researchers even have a name for it: aloneliness. The mirror image of loneliness, it describes the negative symptoms and emotions that arise when you don't get any real time to yourself.

Introverts like me understand it better than most, but we're not the only ones. Parents staring down the barrel of a six-week school holiday get prickly at this time of year. People who live in busy flatshares or work in people-infested environments like schools and hospitals know the feeling, too.