Does it matter whether the colouring happens on paper or on a screen?

There’s a quiet assumption that sits behind a lot of wellbeing advice: that the gentle, analogue version is the real one. Real journals, real walks, real pencils. The screen version is the poor cousin, maybe even the problem.

A new study from the University of Southampton, reported this week, poked at that assumption in a very small and very ordinary way. It asked whether colouring in works any differently if you do it on a phone or tablet instead of on paper.

What the researchers did

A team led by Dr Emma Palmer-Cooper, an Associate Professor in Psychology, worked with nearly 300 university students. Roughly half were asked to do mindful colouring with traditional pencils and paper. The other half used digital colouring apps on phones or tablets. Each person did at least six sessions over two weeks.

Before and after the programme, everyone filled in questionnaires about stress, mindfulness, and their own self-reported feelings of low mood and anxiety, along with their general wellbeing.

The work is published in the Journal of Mental Health, and was shared by the university on 2 October 2026.

What they found

Both groups reported meaningful improvements across the measures. Digital colouring was described as just as effective as the pencil-and-paper version. The people who started out with lower wellbeing tended to report the biggest changes.

Dr Palmer-Cooper also made a point that we appreciated: this kind of activity “might not appeal to everyone.”

The honest caveats

We want to be careful here, because this is exactly the sort of finding that can get stretched.

First, we’ve only seen the university’s summary and press coverage. The journal page wasn’t open to us when we looked, so we can’t tell you effect sizes or exactly how the researchers handled the details. We’d encourage anyone curious to read the paper itself.

Second, the comparison was between two kinds of colouring. As far as we can tell from the coverage, it doesn’t tell us how colouring compares with doing nothing, or with doing something else entirely. People in both groups were also taking part in a study, spending set time on a calm activity, which is its own kind of attention. So the fair reading is “the format didn’t seem to matter much,” not “colouring does this.”

Third, the participants were university students, a group often navigating a big transition, and the outcomes were self-reported. It’s a useful signal, not a rule for everyone.

What we take from it

We don’t take a prescription. We take a small permission.

Many of us feel faintly guilty about doing a calm thing on a screen, as though the “right” kind of rest has to be screen-free to count. This study suggests the thing that matters may be the quality of the pause, not the material it’s made of. A few unhurried minutes, with something absorbing and low-stakes for your hands and eyes, seems to be worth having, whether the pencil is wood or a fingertip.

That sits close to how we think about Nagi. It’s a calm space that’s just yours: a four-tap check-in for mood, sleep and energy, no name, no email. It isn’t a treatment, and it isn’t trying to be the one right way to rest. It’s a place to notice how you are, and then carry on with whatever kind of quiet works for you.

If colouring isn’t your thing, that’s completely fine too. The point isn’t colouring. The point is that small, gentle pauses are allowed, and you get to choose what they look like.

And if things have felt heavy for a while, please don’t wait for a colouring book to carry that. Talking to someone you trust, or a professional, is always a good next step.

If you want a private place to start noticing your own patterns, Nagi is on Google Play and the App Store — or in your browser at app.nagiandme.app. The first 15 messages are free. No name, no email. Just you, checking in.

— The Nagi team

Source: University of Southampton, “Colouring on Devices Can Improve Student Wellbeing, Study Finds” (press release, 2 October 2026), via Newswise and Mirage News. Original paper: Journal of Mental Health (DOI link; full text not accessed by us).

Nagi & Me is a mental health companion app, not a medical device, and nothing here is medical advice. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a professional or someone you trust.