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Yes, it is now official that slow internet connection could stress you out. Delays in streaming of videos and loading of webpages could increase heart rate and eventually result in stress.

According to a study from Ericson, a mobile broadband company, delays in the loading of webpages and videos could increase your heart rate to about 38 percent. The level of stress caused as a result of slow internet connectivity is said to be equivalent to watching a horror movie, according to Telegraph.

Ericson studied the effects of slow internet in about 30 Danish volunteers by monitoring their pulse rate, eye movements and brain activity as they watched YouTube videos and browsed the contents on the web.

The volunteers were made to use the internet in three different groups. One of the groups had flawless internet while the other two groups had delays of four to eight seconds and 10 to 14 seconds respectively. The heart rate, pulse rate and stress levels linked to cognitive load, associated with levels of stress related information stored in the brain, are measured.

It was observed that when the participants had two seconds buffering period the stress levels increased two folds and when the buffering period hiked up to six seconds their stress levels increased further before falling down. The falling of stress levels were reportedly the signs indicating that they had given up already, reported Yahoo News.

People that faced delays in the video streaming of about six seconds had six percent increased heart rate and those that had 15 second delays in streaming had 15 percent increased heart rate, as reported in Bustle.

"However, a 2013 study from Kaufer Laboratory and UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby notes that brief periods of stress may be connected to a boost in mental performance," noted HLNTV. "That means the potential stress when a YouTube video buffers could actually be HELPING you in the long run," the report added.