maybe the word procrastinate does not sound too much to us, however, its meaning refers to something quite frequent: leaving for later what you could do now. Well, science gives one more reason to get down to work and defeat laziness. According to a study carried out among Swedish university students, procrastination can lead to develop mental and physical health problems.
The research you publish Jama Network Open indicates that delaying obligations was associated with worse subsequent mental health, with symptoms such as depression, anxiety and stress, or suffering from disabling pain in the upper extremities.
In addition, this trend was also linked to unhealthy behaviors in lifestyle, such as poor sleep quality, inactivity, tobacco or alcohol use; in addition to worse levels of psychosocial health factors (greater loneliness and more economic difficulties).
To carry it out, a team led by researchers from Stockholm University followed for almost a year the habits of 3,525 university students to see if this practice was associated with effects on mental and physical health nine months later.
The participants made a self-assessment on five aspects scoring from one (“very rarely or does not represent me”) to 5 (“very often or always represents me”), which were added to obtain the total procrastination score that ranged from 5 and 25.
In summary, the researchers consider that “given that procrastination is frequent among university students, these results may be important” for improve understanding of your health.