Good news parents! New study reveals parenthood could be linked to living longer

If you’ve recently entered the weary wonderful world of parenthood, you’d be forgiven for thinking the sleepless nights, lack of decent diet (coffee for breakfast, lunch and dinner) and utter exhaustion can only have a negative impact on your health.

But, believe it or not there is an upside to joining the parenting party (besides the joy of parenting itself of course! Obvs) because research has revealed that far from shortening your lifespan, being a parent actually means you’re likely to live longer.

Research published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found that by the age of 60, the difference in life expectancy of parents compared to childless adults may be as much as two years. Crikey!

Using national registry data scientists tracked the lifespan of Swedish men (704,481) and women (725,290) born between 1911 and 1925, from the age of 60 onwards.

They found that after taking into account influential factors, the risk of death was lower among those who had at least one child, than they were among those who were childless. What’s more, the risk of death was even lower among men than women.

How the mortality advantage of parents over non-parents changes over the life span, is not known, researchers did suggest some hypotheses from the results including the fact that in old age, the stress of parenthood is likely to be lower and instead, parents can benefit from social support from their children.

Though researchers were keen to point out that this is an observational study meaning no firm conclusions about the causes of the results can be drawn, it does add to previous studies that have also suggested parents could have a longer lifespan. “Our finding that the association grew stronger when parents became older is further in agreement with research suggesting that childless people face support deficits only towards the end of life,” they wrote in a press release.

So if you woke up this morning feeling like you’ve aged 10 years, take heart in the fact that those all-nighters you’ve been pulling could actually be adding years to your life. Winning!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

50 hilarious tweets that sum up being a parent

Is it ever OK to leave a child alone in a hotel room?