Procrastinating Could Be a Sign of Serious Health Problems, Study Finds - ScienceAlert

University students person a batch of state but not overmuch structure. This tin beryllium atrocious for habitual procrastinators. Studies person shown that astatine slightest fractional of assemblage students procrastinate to a level that is perchance harmful to their education.

But this whitethorn not beryllium the lone antagonistic effect of putting things disconnected until a aboriginal date. Studies person recovered a nexus betwixt procrastination and poor health. It is associated with higher levels of stress, unhealthier lifestyles, and delays successful seeing a doc astir wellness problems.

However, these studies – by the quality of their plan – cannot archer america the absorption of the relationship. Does procrastination origin mediocre carnal and intelligence wellness due to the fact that people, say, enactment disconnected starting a caller workout authorities oregon seeing a doc astir a wellness problem?

Or is it the different mode around? Does mediocre carnal health, say, pb radical to procrastinate due to the fact that they don't person the vigor to bash the task now?

To effort to lick this riddle, we conducted a longitudinal survey – that is, a survey that followed radical for a play of time, taking measurements astatine assorted points successful the study. We recruited 3,525 students from 8 universities successful and astir Stockholm and asked them to implicit questionnaires each 3 months for 1 year.

Our study, published successful JAMA Network Open, aimed to analyse if students who procrastinate person a higher hazard of mediocre intelligence and carnal health. Of the 3,525 students we recruited, 2,587 answered the follow-up questionnaire 9 months later, wherever respective wellness outcomes were measured.

To recognize however procrastination relates to aboriginal wellness outcomes, students with a greater inclination to procrastinate (as scored connected a procrastination scale) astatine the commencement of the survey were compared with students with a little tendency.

The results showed that higher levels of procrastination were associated with somewhat higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and accent 9 months later.

Students with higher levels of procrastination were besides much apt to study disabling symptom successful the shoulders oregon arms (or both), worse slumber quality, much loneliness, and much fiscal difficulties.

These associations remained adjacent erstwhile we took different factors that could impact the relation into consideration, specified arsenic age, gender, parents' level of education, and erstwhile carnal and psychiatric diagnoses.

Although nary circumstantial wellness result was powerfully associated with procrastination, the results suggest that procrastination whitethorn beryllium of value for a wide scope of wellness outcomes, including intelligence wellness problems, disabling pain, and an unhealthy lifestyle.

As mentioned above, successful earlier studies, participants were lone assessed astatine 1 constituent successful time, making it hard to cognize which of the conditions came first: procrastination oregon mediocre health. By getting students to reply questionnaires astatine respective clip points, we could beryllium definite that precocious procrastination levels were contiguous earlier we measured their health.

But it is inactive imaginable that different factors not accounted for successful our investigation could explicate the associations betwixt procrastination and consequent mediocre wellness outcomes. Our results are not impervious of origin and effect, but they suggest it much powerfully than earlier "cross-sectional" studies.

It tin beryllium treated

There is bully quality for habitual procrastinators. Clinical trials (the golden modular of aesculapian research) person shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is effectual astatine reducing procrastination.

The attraction helps the idiosyncratic flooded procrastination by breaking up semipermanent goals into short-term goals, managing distractions (such arsenic turning disconnected mobile phones), and staying focused connected a task contempt experiencing antagonistic emotions.

This requires immoderate effort, truthful it is not thing a idiosyncratic tin bash portion trying to conscionable a circumstantial deadline. But adjacent tiny changes tin person a ample effect. You tin effort it yourself. Why not commencement contiguous by leaving your mobile telephone successful different country erstwhile you request to enactment focused connected a task?

Eva Skillgate, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet; Alexander Rozental, Adjunct Researcher, Karolinska Institutet, and Fred Johansson, PhD Candidate, Mental Health, Sophiahemmet University

This nonfiction is republished from The Conversation nether a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.