Emails are either helpful or stressful. A study suggests the more one refreshes his or her inbox, the more stressed they become.

The study from the University of British Columbia pointed out that the maximum number of times one should refresh his email should only be three times per day to reduce one's stress.

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The researchers asked 124 adults to limit their email refreshing and checking to only three times a day in a span of seven days. For the next week, the sample population was asked to check as much as they wanted and they started returning to the old habits they had before the study started.

Participants were asked to fill out a 10-minute questionnaire to rate their daily stress levels throughout the experiment. The result showed those who checked their emails less frequently were happier.

An average person actually checks his email 15 times a day. Lowering this number to three will keep one's stress levels low.

Also, 92 percent of American adults use email to communicate. Consequently, there are around 183 billion emails sent and received in a day.

"Most participants in our study found it quite difficult to check their email only a few times a day. This is what makes our obvious-in-hindsight findings so striking. People find it difficult to resist the temptation of checking email, and yet resisting this temptation reduces their stress," said Kostadin Kushlev, a PhD candidate at UBC's Department of Psychology and lead author of the study.

Tagsemails, Stress, thrice only, University of British Columbia, constant checking, stress level