Top 10 Most Common Bad Habits

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7. Nail Biting

nail biting- most common bad habits

This is another ubiquitous one. It even has got a scientific name! (Onychophagia). Nail biting is an unhealthy, unhygienic and embarrassing habit. Nail biting may have originated during our evolution, when as animals we developed instincts for grooming ourselves frequently. But now as civilized beings we have developed better ways of grooming, and nail biting is not somethings that good.

Nail biting usually starts in childhood and and occurs most frequently in teenagers. Sometimes it stays till adulthood. Psychologists classify nail-biting as obsessive-compulsive behaviour and it can be triggered by anxiety or nervousness. Most nail-biters don’t know when they’re doing it, like most of these bad habits it happens automatically. The health effects of nail-biting mainly include damage to proper nail growth and the outer layer of teeth. Our hands are one of the most bacteria-infested regions in our body, and nail-biting carries them all to our stomachs. Harmful bacteria like staphylococcus are known to live underneath nails. Thus the habit of nail-biting can adversely affect your oral and gastrointestinal health.

There are a few simple ways for quitting this habit. A common method is to apply a bitter, clear nail coating that deters you when you try. Identifying the urge and clenching your fists until the urge ebbs is also helpful.

6. Bad Sleeping Habits

bad sleeping habits- most common bad habits

We all know the old proverb, ‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’. While it might actually be an overstatement, the importance of good sleeping habits can’t be denied.

A lot of research has occurred on sleeping habits and their effects. Bad sleeping habits include staying up late, sleeping too little, not having a consistent time of sleeping and waking, and a lot else. A study has found that teenagers who stay up late may face learning problems later. Its also a mistake to think that burning the midnight oil now without getting an ounce of sleep can be compensated by oversleeping later. You can only sleep well when you sleep and wake up at the same times every day. Going to bed and waking up at drastically different hours can disturb your circadian rhythm – the 24-hour cycle linked to brain activity, hormone production and cell regeneration. Another research has shown that the activity of hundreds of genes in the human body is altered when people’s sleep is cut to less than six hours a day for a week.

Sleep demand for a healthy lifestyle varies with age, but somewhere between seven to nine hours of daily, consistent sleep is good for you. So, change your bad sleeping patterns for good and and sleep well!

5. Bad Eating Habits

bad eating habits- most common bad habits

Food is what we get all our energy from. Its said, ‘You are what you eat,’ and your eating habits dictate the kind of life you live and your overall health. To become a healthy person, a good eating habit is always the first prerequisite. As bad eating habits go, there are a lot of them. Over-eating or under-eating is the worst of all. Our body needs a fixed amount of calories and nutrients every day for normal functioning, and decreasing your intake or eating way more than necessary are both bad for your health. The WHO estimates that more than 10 percent of all adults are obese, and it is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths worldwide. And there are people anorexic due to under-eating.

Other bad eating habits include skipping breakfast (its considered the most important meal of the day), emotional eating, eating too fast and snacking at nighttime. All these habits are bad for your body health, and the mind cannot be healthy without a healthy body. Eating junk food and avoiding nutritious ones is also a common bad habit. Junk foods may provide momentary satisfaction by tasting good, but they don’t supply what your body needs, and contain way more calories than necessary. So improving your eating habit is fundamental if you want to become a healthy person. Eating a balanced diet and eating just the amount your body needs is best for you. Eat healthy, become healthy.

4. Profanity

profanity- most common bad habits

We all speak bad words at times. Profanity can be in the form of gestures (flipping the middle finger) or expressions, and not only just bad words. While profanity can be uttered just casually, they usually intend to debase someone or something, or express strong emotions. Mythbusters even confirmed that swearing increases people’s tolerance to pain, a phenomenon known as lalochezia. But there’s a reason bad words are called bad. They’re bad. You don’t utter them in public or in the media. In some countries its even illegal to do so. If you could, they wouldn’t be bad words.

Where it is unacceptable or illegal to utter profanity, minced oaths are sometimes acceptable, which are euphemistic forms of these words and intended to be less explicit (like ‘darn’, ‘freaking’), but some still consider them as profanity.

When you start uttering profanity casually, it becomes a habit, like everything else. And habits are hard to stop. That’s why they are habits. And sometimes they slip out when you don’t intend them to. That causes embarrassment and guilt.  Uttering profanity without the need to can cause problems. Its a bad habit you’ll need to take control over.

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