Only youth is not in life, and the peak time when I feel happy to be alive is in my 80s

by bravenewtraveler

There may be many people who say 'I'm glad I was back then' or 'When I was younger ...' or have heard from someone older than me. As represented by such words and deeds, there is a deep-rooted image that youth is the happiest time of your life.

However, recent research has shown that the happiest peak in life is in the 80s. You may have the image of 'getting older = losing youth', but the results of this study are likely to be positive for aging.

Happiness peaks in our eighties
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/8409411/Happiness-peaks-in-our-eighties.html

Traditional wisdom has been that youth is the greatest time, and by the time you turn 40, you're past the peak of your life and you're less and less happy. However, as a result of a study, the sense of satisfaction and optimism became stronger from the time of middle age, and the feeling of happiness that I felt when I was younger was easily overcome, and it peaked in my 80s. It became clear.

In his latest book, Professor Emeritus Lewis Wolpert, who studies biology at University College London, deals with the degree of happiness you feel in a person's life. From the teens to the 20s, most people felt happy on average, and by the time they reached middle age, the pressure to support their families and try to succeed at work steadily reduced their happiness. It seems to go. However, after that, there was a tendency to become cheerful and optimistic from the middle of the 40s, and it peaked in the 70s to 80s, claiming that there are ups and downs in the degree of feeling happiness throughout life. increase.

Also, according to a study conducted on 341,000 subjects published in the American National Academy of Sciences , the degree of happiness decreases for some time after adulthood, As he approached his late 40s, he began to show an upward trend, and his happiness continued to rise until he reached its peak at the age of 85.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, a professor of psychology at University College London, points out that older people are often healthier than their peers 30 years ago, and they need to be healthy and maintain it. He points out that income is very important to the lives of older people. In addition, Professor Steptoe thinks that as he grows older, he will be able to carefully select how he spends his time, pay close attention to his enjoyment, and avoid feeling unhappy. increase.

Research has also shown that as people grow older, their abilities improve as their brains mature in areas they were not good at, such as calculations, foreign languages, and decision making. increase.

Many people may have a positive image of youth and a negative image of old age, but when you look at the peaks of happiness that this study showed, perhaps the most enjoyable life is. It may be that it is set aside until the end.