Watching reruns can replenish your self-control You've seen this episode of "Seinfeld" approximately eleventy billion times, and yet you're still glued to the TV. You (and your housemates) may think you're just being lazy, but a new study suggests that you're doing something useful: watching reruns of our favorite TV shows actually replenishes our self-control. Jaye Derrick, research scientist at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions, had a hunch that watching TV is doing something more for our brains than turning them to mush. Specifically, she wanted to see whether the restorative powers of watching a familiar TV show might have any effect on our reserves of self-control. Because self-control comes in limited quantities. It takes a lot of mental energy to refrain from calling your partner a jerk or eating a second slice of chocolate cake -- and as you exert yourself, self-control depletes, past research has suggested. People restock their reserves in many ways and Derrick believed that watching TV or a movie or reading a book might re-establish self-control because it stands in as a social surrogate. Chatting and sharing some laughs with friends provides a positive social event that boosts moods and restores diminished self-control. Derrick suspected that retreating to a familiar fictional world could provide the same benefits as those real life experiences. Derrick asked subjects to take a daily survey for two weeks, where they answered questions about stress, effortful self-control, fictional world use, and mood. They also noted if they retreated to a familiar fictional world, such as a rerun or a re-read of a book. The results revealed that people escaped to a fictional world to find relief from stressful situations and when they encountered a favorite repeat of a TV show, movie, or book it built up their self-control. "Part of it is sitting there watching these social characters we enjoy and kind of living in the moment a bit," explains Derrick. And watching these familiar faces feels as reinvigorating as hanging out with a loved one. She suspects that people enjoy re-watching or re-reading because they feel comfortable with the plot and characters - and they don't have to exert any extra effort. When people see a new episode of a much-loved show they invest mental energy into following the plot, wondering about twists and turns. We have to do all this extra effort when [watching or reading] a new TV show, new movie, or new book. If we have seen it before we can just enjoy it," Derrick explains. A positive mood is energizing. As someone who found herself in front of the tube re-watching some of her favorite shows, Derrick feels happy that TV viewing has a positive side. I am hesitant to make this into a prescription [because] we don't know what the potential long term effects are, but what the research suggests is that [watching] favorite episodes can be beneficial.