When work gets stressful, the standard advice is familiar: Exercise more, eat better, sleep more, and cut back on unhealthy habits.
But our new research study suggests not all healthy habits offer the same protection from chronic work stress.
Using data over 10 years from a long-running national survey of 2,871 Canadian workers, we examined whether five health-related behaviors outside work helped weaken the relationship between work stress and general health over time: nutrition, exercise, sleep quality, alcohol use, and smoking frequency.
What we found was more uneven – and more interesting – than the usual wellness advice suggests.
Some behaviors appeared to offer real stress-specific protection. Others were linked to health overall, but did not seem to buffer the effects of work stress specifically. Some habits protect; others don't.
