Why Should You Lie (to Yourself) About Your Age?
For years, my mother told herself – and everyone who would listen to her – that she was 45 years old. She’s not actively trying to deceive us (I’m 37, so I don’t fall for that); she tries to deceive herself. She read somewhere that if you tell yourself that you are younger than your age, you will start to feel younger.
She swears lying to herself is the key to a younger life, and science says she might be right.
As we get older, most of us feel younger.
A 2018 University of Virginia study with more than 30,000 people found that we tend to think we are younger than we really are by the age of 25. And Medical Xpress reports that this discrepancy grows with age:
For every decade that has passed, people tend to think they have won only five or six years. This is the equivalent of Martian life years as opposed to Earth years.
It turns out that this phenomenon can have very important consequences. A recent surge of research in this area has shown that the degree to which people feel younger than they are is strongly associated with a range of health consequences. People with a younger subjective age are less likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, depression, cognitive impairment, and dementia.
If you think of yourself as younger, you may act younger without even realizing it, such as walking faster, exercising more, or engaging in activities that increase the amount of gray matter in your brain.
If you feel younger, you are more likely to live longer.
Another study from University College London found that those who thought they were younger had lower mortality rates than those who thought they were older than their own age. Thrive Global breaks down the numbers:
UCL researchers recruited 6,489 people with an average age of just under 66 to fill out questionnaires that asked how they felt about their age. Almost 70% said they feel three or more years younger than their actual age. About 25% were close to their real age. And about 5% felt a year older.
UCL researchers correlated this data with mortality over the next eight years. Of the people who felt older, 24% died, versus 18% of those who felt their age, and 12% who felt younger. In other words, people who felt younger than their actual age had a 50% lower risk of dying compared to people who felt older.
Chicken versus egg?
Of course, if you have good health, you will probably feel younger man his age, whose health problems. So, is mind over body or body over mind? Probably a little bit of both; but, unlike your present age, you can change your subjective age.
Healthline calls our subjective age a “magic number” and “an indicator of your physical health, well-being, vitality and even longevity.” And over time, she can hesitate:
Even if those 40 now seem like 29, you might actually be 45 as 50. That is why we have to keep an eye on our subjective age.
Check back often. Have you tried new things, stayed active, and paid attention to your overall well-being?
As for my mom, she’s pretty convinced herself that she’s in her 40s, so whenever someone has a legitimate medical or professional reason to ask, she should stop and calculate her true age.
And when I notice that our eight-year (and diminishing) age gap starts to seem a little odd, she has a simple solution for me: “So tell yourself you’re 25.”
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