3 Common But Harmful Habits That Could Shorten Your Life

I remember Helen Paul delivering a joke about old women who said they still wanted to live for as long as 50 years, and she was talking about how no one wants to die anymore. Even Tuface sang that nobody wants to die (but they want to go to heaven). Everyone truly wants to live for as long as possible, but a lo of people unknowingly shorten their lifespan by certain habits they keep. You are probably guilty of at east one of those habits too, so don't be in a rush to absolve yourself, instead, find out what those habits are below.

1. Sitting A lot

Sitting in traffic, sitting at work, sitting in a meeting, sitting in front of the TV, sitting almost all day, everyday...., sound familiar? Recently a research study was carried out by JAMA Internal Medicine which surprisingly found out that sitting for more than 11 hours per day could increase the risk of death up to 40% just within the next three years! So if you are sitting a lot working on a computer or doing something else, you should take breaks, stand up, and walk around. Your boss can't complain if you take 5 minutes every hour to just walk!

2. Watching Too Much TV

Watching too much TV naturally leads you to sit for too long, after all, you can't watch TV on your feet for the whole time! It is surprising how many of us choose to spend so many hours watching TV passively when it has been shown that TV watching can bring on serious diseases such as diabetes and heart disease! A few years back the NY Times reported that people over 25 reduce their lifespan by around 21 minutes every time they spend a single hour watching TV! Try to replace TV watching with other activities to help you relax as much as possible.

3. Oversleeping

Have you noticed that whenever you sleep for too long, you wake up feeling ore tired than you felt before you slept? One of the worst things you could do to yourself is sleeping more than eight hours on a regular basis. Yes, you heard right – sleeping more than eight hours could be quite harmful to the body, so if you usually oversleep, then think of limiting yourself to 7 or 8 hours at the most. Of course, make sure not to reduce it a lot more, because sleep deficiency is just as bad and can mess with your body and mind.

Cover image via Thetimes