You’ve had a WFH day, so there’s been no absurdly early morning alarm or stressful commute. Your most strenuous activity has been walking a few steps to the kettle. Why, then, do you feel absolutely exhausted by 3pm?

You can blame those back-to-back video meetings. But, contrary to what you might assume, it’s not because those meetings are too much work, or the frustration of reminding someone that they really need to mute themselves when they’re not talking. Nope, it’s down to your meetings being too bloody boring.

That’s according to a new bit of research from Aalto University, which found that sleepiness during virtual meetings might be a result of mental ‘underload’ (exactly what it sounds like, the opposite of overload) and boredom.

In the study, workers’ heart rates were measured during both virtual meetings and face-to-face ones, so researchers could see the physiological responses to meetings at different times in the working day. Participants were also tasked with filling in questionnaires to measure their overall engagement at work.

The reason you’re so tired after loads of virtual meetings? They’re too boring