Habits That Increase Your Early Death Risk

Just as maintaining healthy habits can extend our lifespan (think flossing, exercising, and regularly getting outside in nature), developing unhealthy habits may oppositely take years off our lives. Smoking, overconsumption of alcohol, and neglecting your stress-reducing meditation routine may be a few of the first unhealthy habits that come to mind, but other everyday activities that may seem harmless at first glance can potentially be doing more damage to your health than you might think.

First: oversleeping. The potentially life-threatening health risks associated with sleep deprivation are well documented, so it makes sense to think the more the merrier when it comes to sleep duration. However, findings from a 2018 study published in the European Heart Journal found that getting more than 8 hours of shut-eye a day was linked with an increased risk of death and major cardiovascular events, including non-fatal heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. People who slept over 6 hours nightly but who also took naps during the day were also found to be at risk for these adverse outcomes. The sweet spot that posed the lowest health risks was found to be between 6 and 8 hours of daily snooze time. But catching one too many Z's isn't the only sleep-related habit that can potentially shorten our lifespan.

Even more so than the number of hours one spends sleeping, a 2023 study published in Sleep shows that whether or not a person sticks to a consistent bedtime and waketime may be a greater indicator of early death risk. UK Biobank health data collected from over 60,900 participants revealed that irregular sleep was associated with a greater risk of all-cause death as well as death from cancer and cardiometabolic causes.

People who adhered to more regular sleep patterns, however, were found to be 20% to 48% less susceptible to all-cause mortality, 16% to 39% less vulnerable to death from cancer, and 22% to 57% less likely to die from cardiometabolic causes compared to participants with the least regular sleep patterns. The study findings further showed measures of sleep regularity to be more indicative of one's early death risk than sleep duration. For some of us, however, our work schedules make maintaining a regular sleep pattern challenging — like night-shift workers who may struggle to balance their circadian rhythm. The National Sleep Foundation issued a 2023 consensus statement published in Sleep Health reinforcing the importance of sleep regularity but outlined how limiting ourselves to 1 to 2 hours of catch-up sleep on days we have off from work may benefit our health.

From full-time office jobs to getting sucked into your never-ending Instagram feed, society has made sedentary days the new norm. According to 2018 research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, more than 80% of jobs in the U.S. have employees sitting for the majority of the day. As a result, research shows these individuals are more prone to early death from cardiovascular and metabolic causes.

In another 2024 study also published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, it was found that the more total time older women spent sitting (as well as the greater the average length of time women spent per sitting), the higher the risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular disease mortality. More specifically, older women whose total sit time exceeded 11.6 hours daily were 57% more susceptible to all-cause death and 78% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than women who sat for less than 9.3 hours a day. Participants who had both high total sit times and high sit duration averages were at the greatest risk for early death. All the more reason to exercise while sitting at your desk and to remember to take periodic breaks throughout the day.

People who live by the phrase "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow" may face more health problems than those who knock things off their to-do list. In a 2023 study published in JAMA Network Open, 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 an initial assessment of their self-reported procrastination scores. The research showed procrastination to be linked with various adverse health outcomes and unhealthy lifestyle habits, including poor sleep quality and a lack of physical activity. As we've covered, both of these factors can increase one's risk for early death.

In an earlier 2015 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, researchers also found that among various personality factors shown to influence high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk, greater degrees of procrastination were one of them. Compared to healthy individuals, participants with hypertension and cardiovascular disease who tended to procrastinate were also more likely to cope poorly with these health issues. While a habit of delaying chores or schoolwork can't definitively be linked to mortality, we've now learned that it may increase one's susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that one cardiovascular disease death occurs every 33 seconds in the U.S. (Here are some other ways in which being a chronic procrastinator may impact your health.)

For some people, the "pop" sound that comes with cracking your joints can be quite satisfying. While the root of that popping noise is debated within the medical community, experts at Saratoga Spine state that it is thought to potentially be the result of air bubbles, the collapse of pockets of space in the joint's lubricant fluid, or the rapid stretching of ligaments, among other potential causes.

Cracking your neck can come with some unique risks because the neck contains vertebral arteries that circulate blood to the brain. While rare, overstretching the neck can cause tears in these arteries, reducing blood flow to the brain, and increasing the risk of stroke. "If a stroke does happen, it can be life-threatening or can leave the sufferer with a permanent disability, such as loss of vision, problems walking and problems with speech and swallowing," Christine Roffe, professor of stroke medicine at Keele University, told Newsweek. In one severe instance, researchers from a 2018 case report in Biomedical Research and Reviews detailed how a woman in her early 30s died shortly after undergoing neck manipulation by a chiropractor — an incident that a reported 1 in 48 chiropractors have experienced, per the report.

Although research has produced mixed results, having a pessimistic outlook on life may chip away at our lifespan. In a 2016 longitudinal study published in BMC Public Health, researchers examined the relationship between optimism, pessimism, and the risk of coronary heart disease death. In both middle-aged and older men and women, rates of coronary heart disease mortality were higher among those who had higher pessimism test scores at baseline. While the research stated that human personality traits tend to establish themselves early in life, pessimism could not be determined as the sole cause of the connection. The study team further added that we all contain both optimistic and pessimistic traits, rather than belonging to just one category over the other. A 2020 study published in Scientific Reports yielded similar results, with pessimism being found to increase the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death in participants over the age of 50 in Australia, with optimism showing to have no significant effect. 

All that being said, an earlier 2013 study found in Psychology and Aging suggests that having more pessimistic assumptions about the future as an older adult may oppositely reduce the risk of mortality. The researchers theorized that having a more realistic view of life may increase health-conscious decision-making — like setting a routine bedtime, combating procrastination, and maybe resisting the urge to crack your neck.