Being a glass half full kind of person comes with benefits not only for your emotional state but also for your physical health. Scientists have discovered many benefits that come with being more optimistic, including better sleep and a healthier heart. Here’s why it pays to be an optimist:
You’re less likely to have high blood pressure
In 2020 Harvard scientists analysed data from more than 100,000 soldiers. They found that those with the highest scores for optimism at the start of their study had a 22 per cent lower risk of developing hypertension during the 3.5-year trial than those with the lowest scores.
According to researchers a positive outlook tends to lead to healthier habits. Optimistic people are less likely to smoke or drink to excess and more likely to work out, all of which benefit blood pressure.
Your immune health will be stronger
Harnessing positive thoughts could bolster your immune system, according to a study from Tel Aviv University. Reporting in Nature Medicine this year, the lead researcher Dr Nitzan Lubianiker, a neuroscientist, showed that training people to think hopeful thoughts activated brain circuits linked to optimism.
When the same people were then given a vaccination their immune systems responded more powerfully than a control group that hadn’t undergone the optimism training. It suggests that it may be possible to “harness the natural capacities of our mind and brain to heal our bodies”, Lubianiker said.
You might sleep better
The more pessimistic you are about getting a good night’s sleep, the less likely it is to happen. Researchers have proved many times that our outlook affects sleep quality, with one study in Behavioural Medicine journal showing higher optimism scores to be associated with 22 per cent greater odds of better sleep.
Relying on sleep trackers doesn’t always help if you are prone to negativity. In March psychologists from the University of Bergen in Norway reported that people with insomnia symptoms “were more susceptible to negative effects” from sleep trackers which exacerbate stress and worry.
Both brain and body will age better
A study from the Yale School of Public Health last month showed that optimism helped nearly half of over-65s to perform better in tests of cognitive and physical function as they aged. The lead researcher, Becca Levy, a professor of social and behavioural sciences, tracked the adults for up to 12 years and found that those with very positive views of ageing were significantly more likely to show improvements in both cognition and walking speed. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the ageing process,” Levy said.
Midlife optimists have healthier hearts
People prone to negative thinking tend to be at a higher risk of heart disease, which Harvard scientists have suggested might be linked to the release of stress hormones and a physical stress response that is a risk for higher heart rate and raised blood pressure. What’s more, rosier belief systems could be good for the heart. Three years ago, a 15-year study of 3,206 mid-lifers by researchers from Harvard and Yale universities found higher optimism was associated with lower total cholesterol and bad LDL cholesterol levels. And a large review of 15 studies involving almost 230,000 people suggested that optimistic people have a 35 per cent lower risk for cardiovascular events than their more pessimistic peers.
