Boredom is something we all experience. The hours tick by, we're sluggish and unstimulated, and eventually we become desperate for something, anything, to break us out of our utter tedium. But defining the sensation of boredom precisely — and identifying why we get bored in the first place — is tricker than it seems. And at the roots of boredom are some big insights on human cognition and attention that might have given us a serious evolutionary edge. Yes, your inability to stay awake in math class may actually have a point to it.
