ScienceDaily: Study finds that experiences of daily stress decrease as people age

“Respondents participated in telephone interviews that assessed daily levels of stress for eight consecutive days. These daily assessments were repeated at approximately nine-year intervals, providing a longitudinal daily diary across 20 years. The researchers noted a decrease in the effects of daily stress both in the number of daily stressors that people reported, as well as their emotional reactivity to them. For example, 25-year-olds reported stressors on nearly 50% of days, while 70-year-olds reported stressors on only 30% of days.

In addition to the decrease in the number of daily stressors reported, Almeida and the research team also found that as people age, they are less emotionally reactive to daily stressors when they do happen.

"A 25-year-old is much grumpier on the days when they experience a stressor, but as we age, we really figure out how to decrease those exposures," said Almeida, who noted that daily stress steadily decreases until mid-50s, when people are the least affected by stress exposures. While these findings show a decrease in reports of, and reactivity to, daily stressors into the mid-50s, Almeida notes that early indicators show that older age, into the late 60s and early 70s, may bring more challenges and a slight increase in instances of daily stress."

Some Insights From This Article

• A recent survey showed that as we age our experience with stress tends to decrease. Although the amount of stress we face may not change as much, our experience and our methods of handling stress become far more efficient and decrease as we age. This may explain the age old saying of more age equaling more wisdom.

• As we get older the more experience we accumulate in our lives: the more situations we are able to handle. Part of the aging process is our minds learning to adapt to these sorts of changes in our lives and prepare ourselves for the next set of stressors.

How do you compare your stress response as to when you were younger?

Full article is here!

#Age #Stress #Wisdom