It’s no secret that students need to take a break every once in a while to de-stress and avoid burnout. Turns out, one of our greatest childhood pastimes can help with just this: video games.

Research increasingly provides that video games can relax us, if we know what qualities to look for in a game. Here, we’ve outlined a few traits of relaxing video games.

Calming music

Music is a mood maker. When it’s upbeat, it can get us jazzed for an all-nighter. When it’s slow-paced, it can help us wind down and relax. Every video game has its own soundtrack, some skewing slower paced to make us kick back and relax.

Serene visuals

In the real-world, natural surroundings and scenic beauty relaxes us. The same can be said for video games set in the outdoors and with little fuss or frills. In some instances, when they’re simple enough, they might even help us slip into flow states.

Humor

Humor helps us release dopamine, and happiness is a natural agent for stress-relief. For this reason, funny games with low-stakes can simply help us not take ourselves or our tasks too seriously — and that’s a refreshing break.

Cooperative play

Being tied to a desk writing a paper or studying can sometimes feel isolating. Video games with multiplayer modes or even taking Twitch breaks makes an opportunity for a quick social interaction one click away.

No time limits

As students, we can feel married to deadlines and milestones. Playing a video game with no time limits isn’t only a refreshing change of pace but it also provides us the opportunity to express ourselves without guidelines, word counts, and other parameters. Games with no time limits give us creative freedom.

Understanding these qualities of a relaxing game is just the start of how you can destress with one. Next, you need to find the right title for you. Norton, the cybersecurity authority that recently forayed into video game security, did just this by crowning its top calming games. Pore over them in the infographic here:

Please include attribution to Norton with this graphic.