Unhappiness Shortens Your Lifespan More Than Smoking, New Research Finds

Unhappiness may shorten your life more than smoking, scientists say.

Data from 12,000 Chinese adults revealed that having a poor mental state — feeling lonely, hopeless and having restless sleep, for example — can shave more than a year and a half off the average lifespan.

Scientists say their research shows that mental health is just as important as physical health.

The US-China team made the discovery while investigating a new AI ‘ageing clock’ trained on biological sex, blood markers, biometric data and biological age of the participants of a major population study.

The sophisticated clock worked backwards to estimate the specific contributions of different variables to ageing.

Lead author Dr Fedor Galkin said: ‘Ageing acceleration was detected in people with a history of stroke, liver and lung diseases, smokers, and most interestingly, people in a vulnerable mental state.

‘In fact, feeling hopeless, unhappy, and lonely was shown to increase one’s biological age more than smoking.’

Smoking cut lifespans by an estimated 1.25 years in comparison to 1.65 years — or one year and eight months — for these psychological factors.

The team linked other psychosocial variables, like being single or living in a rural area, to shorter lifespans. But their effect was much smaller.

Although the research itself is relatively novel, it chimes with previous work that linked strong relationships with friends and family to longevity.

Their research was published Tuesday in the journal Ageing.