While adopting healthy habits can improve our health and our lives, developing unhealthy habits can take years off our life. Smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and neglecting a stress-reducing meditation routine may be among the first unhealthy habits that come to mind, but other everyday activities that may seem harmless at first glance can cause more damage to your health than you might think.
In her report, published by the American website “Health Digest”, writer Erin Marie said that the life-threatening health risks associated with sleep deprivation have been documented, so it is logical to think that the more hours of sleep, the better when it comes to sleep duration.
However, results of a 2018 study published in the European Heart Journal found that getting more than 8 hours of sleep per day was associated with an increased risk of death and heart disease, including nonfatal heart attacks, stroke, and heart failure.
According to the author, the study found that people who sleep more than 6 hours a night but take naps during the day are also at risk for these negative outcomes. The ideal hours of sleep that pose the least health risks are between 6 and 8 hours, she found. But getting too much sleep isn’t the only sleep-related habit that can shorten our lives.
You don’t have a fixed bedtime.
According to the author, a study published in 2023 in the journal Sleep showed that a person’s lack of adherence to a consistent bedtime and wake-up time may be a greater indicator of the risk of early death. Health data from the UK Biobank collected from more than 60,900 participants revealed that irregular sleep was associated with a greater risk of death from any cause, as well as death from cancer and cardiovascular and metabolic causes.
However, people who had more regular sleep patterns were found to be 20% to 48% less likely to die from any cause, 16% to 39% less likely to die from cancer, and 22% to 57% less likely to die from cardiovascular and metabolic causes than participants with less regular sleep patterns. The study also found that measures of sleep regularity were a better predictor of early death risk than sleep duration.
However, for some of us, our work schedules make it difficult to maintain a regular sleep pattern, such as night shift workers who may struggle to balance their circadian rhythm. The National Sleep Foundation released a consensus statement in 2023 published in the journal Sleep Health that emphasizes the importance of sleep regularity but explains how limiting ourselves to one to two hours of catch-up sleep on days off from work can benefit our health.
Spend most of the day sitting
According to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, more than 80% of jobs in the United States require sitting for most of the day. As a result, research shows that these individuals are more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular and metabolic causes.
Another study published in 2024 in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that the more total time older women spent sitting, the higher their risk of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular disease. Specifically, older women who sat more than 11.6 hours per day were 57% more likely to die from any cause and 78% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than women who sat less than 9.3 hours per day.
procrastination
The author pointed out that people who put off today’s work until tomorrow may face more health problems than those who do it right away. In a study published in 2023, researchers looked at the health effects of procrastination on more than 3,500 university students in Sweden. The study team followed up with the students 9 months after the initial assessment of their self-reported procrastination scores.
Research has shown that procrastination is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes and unhealthy lifestyle habits, including poor sleep quality and lack of physical activity. As mentioned, both of these factors can increase the risk of premature death.
In a previous study published in 2015 in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, researchers also found that among the various personality factors shown to influence high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk, higher procrastination scores were one of them.
Compared to healthy individuals, participants with high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease who tended to procrastinate were also more likely to cope poorly with these health problems. While procrastinating on chores or schoolwork can’t be conclusively linked to death, we now know that it may increase one’s susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.
You love to crack your neck
For some people, the “popping” sound that comes with cracking your joints can be quite satisfying. While the origin of this popping sound is debated within the medical community, experts say it’s thought to be the result of air bubbles, the collapse of pockets of lubricating fluid in the joint, or rapid stretching of ligaments.
Neck cracking may come with some unique risks because the neck contains vertebral arteries that carry blood to the brain. While this is rare, excessive neck tension can cause tears in these arteries, reducing blood flow to the brain and increasing the risk of stroke.
“If a stroke occurs, it can be life-threatening or leave a person with permanent disabilities, such as vision loss, problems walking, problems speaking and swallowing,” Christine Roff, a professor of stroke medicine at Keele University, told Newsweek.
pessimistic outlook on life
Although research has yielded mixed results, a pessimistic outlook on life may shorten our lives. In a longitudinal study published in 2016 in the journal BMC Public Health, researchers examined the relationship between optimism and pessimism and the risk of dying from coronary heart disease. In all middle-aged and older men and women, those who scored higher on a pessimism test at the start had higher rates of coronary heart disease death.
We all have optimistic and pessimistic traits, rather than just one category over the other, the study team added. A 2020 study published in Scientific Reports yielded similar results, finding that pessimism increased the risk of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular disease in participants over the age of 50 in Australia, with no significant effect for optimism.
A previous study published in 2013 in the journal Psychology & Aging suggested that adopting more pessimistic assumptions about the future as an adult may reduce the risk of death, on the contrary. The researchers hypothesized that adopting a more realistic view of life may increase health-conscious decision-making, such as establishing a bedtime routine, combating procrastination, and perhaps resisting the urge to crack your neck.