Bad Habits
Everyone has one or two bad habits. While many of these may be considered bad habits, they aren’t dangerous, and they won’t put your health at risk. Some bad habits can threaten your health and well being, and you may not even know it. Here are the most unhealthy habits that people should break as soon as possible.
Sleeping With the Lights On
Sleeping with the lights on isn’t good for you. This includes the light from a TV. Light tends to keep you up longer, disturbing the melatonin production cycle in your body. When the lights are on, your body assumes that the sun is still out, which makes you think that it isn’t bedtime yet.
Hitting the Snooze Button
Many people hit the snooze button when they just aren’t ready to get up in the morning. This isn’t a good idea. When you press the snooze button, your body can start a new sleep cycle, which will be ended in a mere nine minutes when the alarm goes off again. Waking in such a short time can cause prolonged sleep inertia, which is a zombie-like state, that can make getting up even more difficult. Those extra 9-minutes will do more harm than good.
Biting Your Nails
Biting your nails may seem harmless, but have you ever thought about the things that you touch throughout the day? Just a few include toilets, doorknobs, garbage, and your germ-infested cell phone. After touching all of these things and then biting your nails can make you sick. Also, when you bite around the cuticle area, your nail beds can get an infection. Biting your nails can even cause tooth damage. Now that you know how dangerous nail-biting can be, go out and get some bitter nail polish, which is designed to make you stop biting.
Sunbathing Without Sunscreen
Many people love to sunbathe to try and get a golden tan. The only problem with this is that it causes serious damage to your skin. Not only can the sun’s UV lights cause premature wrinkles and make you look older, but it can also cause skin cancer. Your skin is your largest organ, and you need to care for it properly. It is the first thing that people see when they meet you.
Flushing the Toilet With the Lid Open
When you flush the toilet, you should always close the lid. When you flush with it open, poo particles and organisms can shoot close to 15-feet in the air, landing on the floor, the sink, and even on your toothbrush. This is not only gross, but it is also dangerous. You should try to make it a habit to close the toilet before every flush.
Sitting All Day
Many people’s idea of relaxing is sitting down all day, binge-watching their favorite shows or reading a good book. A sedentary lifestyle can cause obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer. If you sit at a desk all day at work, you should spend your breaks walking around. Rather than sitting on the couch all day, take a walk. It could save your life.
Overusing White Strips
Many people use the over the counter whitening strips, but overuse can be very harmful. These strips contain hydrogen peroxide, which can strip your teeth of the necessary proteins. Under your enamel is a layer called dentin, and it makes up most of your tooth. When you use whitening strips too often, you can damage the collagen protein, and weaken your teeth.
Touching Your Face
On average, a person touches their face between 2,000 and 3,000 times a day. You may not realize it when you are doing it, but you are spreading harmful microorganisms all over your delicate skin. Rubbing your eyes is also a bad idea. It can cause tiny breaks in the skin and broken capillaries. Now that you know this, you should be more conscious about touching your face.
Skipping Breakfast
Your mother may have told you before that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. She was right. Your brain functions better when you have the essential nutrients, specifically when it comes to your memory and cognitive functioning. Also, people who eat breakfast are less likely to become obese. When you eat a good breakfast, you will have the whole day to burn off the calories.
Cleaning Your Ears With Q-Tips
Most people don’t know this, but when you clean your ears with Q-tips, you are actually pushing the wax further into your ear canal. Ears have their own natural cleaning process, which shouldn’t be interrupted. Also, a little bit of ear wax is essential in keeping foreign invaders out of your ear canal.
