5 Life-Span Reducing Habits You May Want to Quit

Surprisingly common ones that can rob you of decades of life

If there’s one thing every single human being wants, it is to live longer.

We deeply fear and despise death. You might say, “I don’t fear or care about death. I live in the moment haha.” But the death of a loved one or a close brush with it yourself will reveal the truth.

We might still have not conquered death, but our life expectancy has climbed over the decades — famines, high child mortalities, and uncontrollable plagues are things of the past.

But what’s also climbed is self-sabotage — the rampantness and normalcy of life-span shortening habits. It’s like we’re negating the life-expectancy progress we’ve made.

I want to share six such habits with you — ones that can cut short your life by not just years, but decades.

Puffing Smoke Like a Chimney

Not just cigarettes, I mean the entire gamut — hookah, meth, crack, cannabis, cigars, etc.

Having tried a fair share of those, I’m no ascetic myself. But having satiated my curiosity, I don’t think I’ll ever smoke again. You probably shouldn’t either.

Pumping hot and dangerous gases into your lungs isn’t something they've been built to handle.

If the sheer amount of information isn’t enough, this picture should convince you. The worst part is that the lungs regenerate excruciatingly slowly.

All that smoke will vaporize years of your life. The typical cigarette smoker loses a whopping 25 years of life expectancy! Not just tobacco, new studies have found a significantly higher risk of death by 60 in marijuana smokers.

It’s actually a double whammy — Not only a diminished lifespan, but your existing years get plagued with wheezing, low stamina, coughing fits, or worse, lung cancer.

Air pollution is already at a record high, no need to further tax your lungs with dangerous fumes.

Not Catching Enough Z’s

The closest thing to hell I have ever experienced is insomnia — but mine was just acute. Chronic insomnia would probably make purgatory seem like a joke.

With the rise of toxic hustle-culture worship, sleep deprivation has become something to brag about. But there’s nothing cool about sabotaging your health, happiness, and even productivity.

Sleep deprivation can literally kill you — while sleeping less than 6 hours doubled the risk of death in people with high blood pressure or diabetes, it more than tripled the risk of death in heart patients.

Even if it doesn’t kill you, as this study aptly titled The Extraordinary Importance Of Sleep explains, it’ll decimate the quality of your life—a perennial foul-mood, low energy, irascibility, inability to focus, depression, anxiety, etc.

So, sleep enough — it’s one of the easiest yet best things you can do.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines, we need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep — while heavy-sleeper adults can make do with 7 hours, kids, athletes, and light sleepers need over 8. Here are a few tips to sleep well:

• Choose a sleep time based on your preference and convenience. Be it as late as 12 AM or as early as 7 PM, the time doesn’t matter as much as the duration does — then, consistently stick to the routine.
• Use your bedroom for only these two things. Our brains associate activities with places. And you want your bedroom associated with only sleep and sex. It was eating, working, chilling, and living on my bed that primarily caused my insomnia.
• At least an hour before bed, get rid of all electronic screens. Electronic screens emit blue light which disrupts sleep by reducing the production of Melatonin a.k.a the sleep hormone.
• Find a pre-bed calming activity. Reading a book while lying on my stomach is my go-to — anything that lulls you into a calm state of mind will do the job.
• Consider Melatonin supplementation. Having used Melatonin myself, I can attest to the fact that it works. ZMA is another supplement that might help. Consult a doctor or a sleep specialist before trying these.

Butt Glued to The Seat

Work used to mean laboring in a forge’s sweltering heat or rowing a barge until your back and arms are sore pulps. Now, it means sitting at a desk for 8 hours straight.

I had always thought sitting was bad since it promoted a sedentary lifestyle. But turns out, long hours of sitting even if you are physically active have alarming effects.

Humans are evolved to move. Back in the hunter-gatherer days, sitting in one place meant death — a higher chance of falling prey to wild beasts + a lower chance of finding food.

As a software developer and writer, I’m the torchbearer of the desk-job stereotype. But I’ve discovered quite a few ways to negate long hours of sitting.

• Stand up and stretch now and then. This simple action also promotes flexibility and relieves stiff joints.
• Keep your phone on the far side of the desk or cubicle. Not only will you have to get up to check your phone, but you’ll also check it less often.
• Stroll around when talking on the phone. Be it a quick 5-minute family call or a lazy 1-hour friend call, you can break the sitting rut.
• Get a standing desk. Height adjustable desks might be expensive but standing desks aren’t. The con is that, with the latter, you’ll have to constantly move your paraphernalia between your main and standing desks.

Overdoing the Booze

I’m all for social drinking and having a great time — a small beer or two now and then won’t hurt. But chugging down liters and liters on the daily?

That certainly will. Along with the alcohol, you will also drink away your years. Studies have found a host of health effects — liver disease, higher blood pressure, digestive problems, cardiac risk, cancer risk, etc.

The solution is to define a limit. But again, sticking to it is easier said than done. On more than one occasion have I downed 5 shots of Vodka when my limit had been 1.

Since a quantity-based limit didn’t work well for me, I switched to a frequency-based one — I drink no more than once a month. But when I do, I’m free to go all in.

If you don’t drink at all, that’s great. If you do, define a limit — one based on frequency, quantity, or both.

Living Off Processed Foods

I saved the best, or shall I say the worst, for last.

You can classify food into two broad types — whole and processed. Whole, as the name suggests, is anything that comprises only one constituent — meat, milk, nuts, eggs, vegetables, fruits, greens, grains, etc.

When you take a bunch of whole foods and run them through factory lines, you get processed foods — cheerios, doritos, pizza, big macs, ice cream, donuts, etc.

And there’s literally only one rule for healthy eating — maximize your whole food intake and minimize your processed food consumption.

Lightly processed foods like canned tuna or skimmed milk aren’t bad at all. The problem is with the heavier ones — and as stats show, we, unfortunately, eat a lot of them.

Such foods are calorie-dense, lack nutrients, and often contain exorbitant amounts of sugar. But the worst reason is they contain trans-fats — the most unhealthy type of fat which raises your bad cholesterol.

The result is an entire array of health risks — nutrient deficiencies, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, disrupted hormones, heart disease, and even cancer:

A study of over 100,000 people found every 10% increase in consumption to cause a 12% higher risk of cancer.

So don’t live off processed foods — center your diet around whole foods and only then indulge in processed ones.

Recap for Your Mind

• Quit smoking of all kinds — even non-tobacco ones can severely harm your health, both mental and physical.
• Sleep at least 7 hours every night, 8 if you’re into strenuous physical activity. Establish a sleep schedule and stick to it.
• Avoid long hours of sitting. Stand and stretch, get a standing desk, stroll around.
• Set limits on your drinking — frequency-based like “Not more than once a month”, quantity-based like “Not more than 2 shots per sitting”, or a mix of both.
• Cut down on your processed food intake. Center your meals around whole foods and only then indulge in processed ones.

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